Reflection
by Kukapetal
Summary: Unable to let go of her need for answers, Elizabeth Shaw makes a different decision aboard the escape pod. Now, in the face of overwhelming tragedy and bitter loneliness, two beings make the discovery that maybe they aren't so different after all.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

With a final push, Elizabeth Shaw managed to untangle herself from the two battling creatures: one, a grotesque mockery of the child she had always desired, the other, a fallen version of the "gods" she had sought for so long. Breaking free of their struggle, she pulled herself to her feet, doing her best to ignore the pain that was shooting up from the wound in her abdomen. She needed to get out of here quickly. She didn't know which of the two aliens would win the struggle, but she wanted to be away from there before it ended and the survivor turned its attention back to her.

Thankfully, she could see that her pack was still where she had dropped it, and looked to be undamaged, so hopefully the oxygen canisters she had filled it with were all right as well. Perhaps she could make her way back to the remains of the caves, where, with a bit of luck, she would find the artificial atmosphere still working. If not, there was always the Engineer's crashed ship. It looked to be fairly intact, so it might be a hospitable environment. If none of the jars filled with that black goo had broken in the crash, anyway.

What she would do once she got to the safety of an atmosphere, she didn't know, but she would figure it out once she got there. Right now, surviving was the important thing.

She was just about to turn and run back toward the entryway when she saw the struggling Engineer crash to the floor, the squid-like monster's tentacles already trying to wrap themselves around its neck, its waist, and its arms. It looked like her "child" was going to win, the power of its dozens of tentacles easily winning out against even the giant humanoid's great strength. She supposed it was for the best. If she had to be stuck on a planet with one of them, she supposed it was safer to be stuck with a mindless monster than an intelligent being that was angry with her and capable of harboring a vendetta against her.

_Enough worrying about them, _she told herself. _Get moving._

Turning away from the battle, she charged toward the entryway, but only got about ten steps before she tripped over something and went sprawling.

She bit back a scream as she clutched at her wounded stomach. She could feel her abdominal muscles beginning to pull apart again, and she knew she needed more of the regenerative solution she'd been injecting herself with since the C-section, as well as more painkillers. She wished that there was time to look for them, but of course there wasn't. She would just have to worry about dealing with her wound once she was safe.

Managing to remove one hand from her stomach, she reached down to move whatever she had tripped over out of the way and started when her hand touched the handle of her ax.

_Leave it,_ she told herself, as she struggled into a kneeling position. _It's useless. _Now that she'd seen the size of the squid-creature, she knew that hacking at it with an ax wasn't going to do much good. Even if it did decide to come for her after it had finished with the Engineer, she was better off running and hiding. Trying to fight it would be suicide. If the Engineer was so easily overpowered, what chance did she have? She had to get out.

Just as she managed to get to her feet, she heard the Engineer scream.

This was different from the creature's formerly angry snarls and bellows as it had chased her through the corridors of the escape pod and grappled with the squid like monster. On the surface it sounded similar to them, an almost inhuman roar, but she could tell it was not a scream of anger at all, or despair, or even pain. This was a scream of _terror._

The sound of the humanoid's scream trailed off into a frantic gurgling even as she turned toward it, and as she finally looked back at it, she saw why. One of the squid-creature's tentacles had wrapped tightly around the Engineer's neck, choking it and causing its eyes to bulge and its mouth to open in a desperate attempt to breathe. The humanoid grabbed weakly at the tentacle, trying to free itself, but it was no match for the thick rope of pure muscle that stole its breath, let alone the half-dozen others that were helping to restrain it. It was helpless as a child in the grip of this newborn monster, and it knew it. Its dark eyes were wide with fear and revulsion as it stared the instrument of its death in the face.

_Not so powerful after all, _she couldn't help thinking. And that was indeed a fitting end for the cruel creature she had once regarded as a god.

No…that wasn't quite right. She had never thought the beings were divine. Only that they were superior. And benevolent. That they were wise creators and teachers who would welcome their children home to them with open arms and the answers to all the questions humanity deemed important.

But now there would be no answers. Perhaps there never would be. This thing was the last of its kind on this planet…perhaps the last of its kind in the universe, for all she knew. After all, why had its kin never come and rescued it in the two-thousand years it had been in stasis? Perhaps they too, had all been wiped out. This wasn't their homeworld, but they still had been tinkering with a substance so lethal it was capable of wiping out all the life on a planet, and perhaps some of that substance had hitched a ride back with them. Perhaps they were all gone.

_Al_most all gone, she reminded herself, as the squid-monster pulled the trapped Engineer forward. The humanoid's struggles had grown more feeble, but its eyes were still wide and terrified.

The center of the squid-like creature seemed to…open as it held the humanoid in its grip, revealing a ring of small holes surrounding what looked like a central, toothy mouth. As she stood there stupidly, too horrified to move, these small holes opened and several small, wormlike tentacles shot out, wrapping themselves around the Engineer's head, holding it in place.

The being screamed again, still a harsh, guttural sound, but there was no mistaking the horror in it. Its right hand came up feebly, still trying to free its head, and its legs kicked wildly, but it was doomed.

Her last chance for answers, doomed.

The entire reason why she came out here, doomed.

The cause for which she'd suffered, for which she'd lost Charlie, for which she'd given everything that mattered to her, doomed.

And as she watched in horrified revulsion as the central hole in the squid monster began to open, she realized that she still held her ax in her hands.

And as she moved, as she ran, as she made a mad dash _toward _the monster, she had time for only one thought.

_I can't let go. I'm a fool, but I can't let go. This is all I have left…_

Then she swung the ax with all her might at the squid-creature, aiming for that strange central mouth, just as it opened fully and a long, grayish "tongue" began to poke out.

It was a direct hit. The ax split not only the mouth itself, but the strange "tongue" (which she could now see wasn't a tongue at all, but some sort of fleshy tube) as well. Both pieces of the tube curled back away from the ax-blow, fell limp for a moment, and then began to flail around like wounded serpents.

The fact that the monster reared both backward and upwards in response to the ax-blow was the only thing that saved either Shaw or the Engineer. A gout of hot, acidic blood spurted from the wound, spraying the walls and ceiling with corrosive fluid. Shaw screamed, letting go of the ax, which was starting to smoulder, and dropped to the floor, trying to get out of the way of the high pressured stream of death. The Engineer screamed as well, flailing against the tentacles which were already loosening their grip on it, and the squid-creature roared in pain. The noise was tremendous for a moment as the halls of the escape pod echoed with sounds of terror and agony.

Then, with a final bellow, the squid-monster fell forward and collapsed in a slimy, fleshy heap. Its tentacles twitched a moment longer, as if blindly searching for something, and then they were still.

She backed up a few trembling paces, eying the creature warily. Was it dead? After only one well-placed ax-blow? She found it hard to believe such a monster could go down that easily.

The sound of scrabbling and harsh, panicked breathing tore her attention away from the dead monster. She turned her head and saw the Engineer a few feet away from her, struggling to free itself from the now limp but still heavy tentacles that were still coiled loosely around its body. It still seemed somewhat panicked, despite the squid-creature's apparent death, and looked as though it wanted to get as far away from the monster as possible. Its movements were weak, however, as if it had used up most of its strength in the struggle earlier, and Shaw could see that it was injured, a harsh, oozing wound covering half its head and face. Shaw had no idea whether it had been hit by the monster's corrosive blood or if the wound had been sustained in the crash earlier, but it looked serious. As she watched, the humanoid managed to untangle itself from the tentacle around its throat, hurling the huge muscular tendril away as it did so. That seemed to expend the last of its energy, however, and it fell over onto its side, still breathing heavily.

She took an instinctive step toward it, wanting to help it, and it raised its head back up and fixed her with a cold, black glare.

Shaw could only stare back at it, a dark feeling of dread stirring in the pit of her belly. This being had only moments ago been trying to kill her, and from the looks of things, it was still furious with her. What would it do now? When it recovered enough to get back on its feet, what would it do to her?

She backed up a step, the enormity of the foolish mistake she'd made only now beginning to become clear to her, and the Engineer's eyes narrowed. It turned its gaze from her to the dead squid-creature, regarded it for a moment, then turned and once again fixed its dark eyes upon her trembling form.

She realized wanted to say something to it. To explain herself…and why she had saved it. To beg it not to harm her, to beg it to explain why it had tried to do destroy every man, woman and child back on Earth, to ask it why all this had happened, why everything had turned into such a nightmare. What she had done to deserve all of this. That last question was surely beyond the being's capabilities to explain, even if the others weren't, but she wanted to ask it anyway. Because she wanted to ask _someone _why this was happening to her, and this angry Engineer was as close to an authority figure as her deteriorating state of mind could identify.

"Why?" was all she could get out, her voice a helpless whimper as tears blurred her vision. Tears as useless as the question itself. The Engineer couldn't understand her. Just as she wouldn't have been able to understand _it _if it had chosen to speak to her. Trying to engage in any kind of dialogue with this being was as useless as crying over the things she had lost.

The Engineer regarded her a moment longer, expression now unreadable, then turned and began to busy itself with removing the remaining tentacles from around its waist and limbs.

She blinked at it, almost _offended _that it disregarded her so easily after she had saved it. True, its behavior earlier hadn't really indentified it as the kind of being who was likely to care about honor and debts, but still…she realized that somehow, after everything that had happened, after everything she had learned about these fallen "gods," she still desperately wanted to matter to this creature. It was all she had left…the only thing she could still cling to, even as everything else around her fell apart. She wanted answers. She wanted acknowledgement. She wanted to be important. This thing and its kin were her ancestors, after all. She wanted to find out why the being had acted as it had. What had changed, what her people had done wrong, and what she could do to fix it. She wanted to right all of the wrongs she and humanity had done so that this creature would view her as worthy.

She wanted it to make everything all right. Because for some reason, she still hadn't given up hope that this being had that capability within it somewhere.

"Please…" she said to it, desperation plain in her voice.

It paused in the act of removing the last tentacle from around its waist and looked back up at her. And then its dark eyes flew wide.

Shaw whirled around in time to see the squid-monster shudder with a violent convulsion. The remains of its mouth pursed, then spasmed as hot, steaming fluid gushed forth, spilling down the front of the creature and making a stinking puddle on the floor. The squid-creature shuddered again, and its tentacles twitched. Shaw suddenly heard a commotion to the right of her and turned to see the Engineer had freed itself and was in the process of scrambling to its feet.

"Wait!" she called out to it, but the humanoid ignored her once again and charged down the hall toward the exit. It was clear that, whatever the squid-monster was doing, the Engineer didn't want to be anywhere near it.

Which was probably a smart idea_,_ she reminded herself. She turned for the exit as well, but the searing pain in her belly had intensified and she ended up falling to her knees. She clutched her stomach with a moan, but was drowned out by a wet gagging noise coming from the monster behind her.

It belched out more hot liquid, then spasmed a final time as the torn remains of its mouth-tube spread wide. As she watched in horror, a glistening mass slid out of the torn mouth and landed with a _plop_ in the middle of the steaming puddle of fluids.

A tiny, pitiful whimper came from the twitching form as it lay there, and Shaw almost instinctively began moving toward it, shuffling painfully on her hands and knees. Something about it ignited a primal, almost motherly urge within her, and she realized with surprise that this was the first maternal feeling this abomination she had borne had brought out in her. Her mind once again ignoring the danger as she acted on a gut instinct, Shaw reached the struggling little form and leaned over it for a closer look.

Whatever it was was encased in a cloudy, red-tinged sac of some sort, a sac that only partially revealed the tiny little being within. It was fighting harder now, its struggles growing more frantic and its cries becoming louder. They still pulled at her, and Shaw found herself wanting to reach out and pick whatever it was up, hesitating only because she didn't know if the fluids it was lying in were acidic the way the blood from the squid-monster had been. Wondering if she could find something to lift the baby out of the puddle with, she scanned around the room and her eyes fell upon on the handle of her ax, lying only a few feet away from her, resting where it had fallen after the squid-creature's blood had dissolved the blade.

She picked up, intending to use it to push the little one out of the puddle so she could pick it up, but before she could, the baby moved once more inside the sac, and Shaw could see its little arms and legs scrabbling at the inside of it. One of the legs came up in a powerful kick and its little toes caught the inside of the sac, tearing it open. And with a final twitch, the little one was free.

Black, shiny skin glistened in the bright overhead lights. Twisted, unnatural limbs ending in sharp little claws thrashed and writhed helplessly amid the mess of fluids and membranes. An eyeless, elongated head reared up at her, opening to reveal tiny pointed teeth in an unnaturally protruding inner jaw. A jaw that was open in a screaming hiss, a sound devoid of any sort of humanity or even sentience.

A monster.

She screamed, her horror, her revulsion, her _hatred _for the little abomination snuffing out the strange maternal feelings she had felt earlier, and the monster joined her, seemingly throwing all its strength into matching her howl.

Still screaming, Shaw raised the ax handle above her head, preparing to bludgeon the tiny horror to death.

But before she could bring her weapon down upon it, it finished its furious screech and dropped its head limply back into the puddle. There was a noise almost like a tiny sigh as its little struggles ceased and it lay still.

It was dead.

And as she stared at the little corpse, something broke within her. She turned away from her two dead "children" with a howl, wanting to put them from her sight. She didn't know if her anguish was brought on by revulsion for them, anger at fate for mocking her by giving her children she could not love, or even guilt for the fact that she couldn't see them as anything but monsters. Whatever it was, it drove her to flee, and she scrambled to her feet and charged down the hallway, trying to ignore the pain in her abdomen.

Ignoring it, however, didn't make it go away, nor did change the fact that her wound had already been placed under a great deal of stress by the day's events. She made it halfway down the hall before she felt something tear loose in her belly. The pain sent her sprawling, her cry of despair rapidly giving way to a scream of agony. As she hit the floor hard, she felt she felt the wound tear further, and she screamed again, the sound choking away into agonized sobs. She couldn't go any further. Both her body and her mind were at their absolute breaking point.

She curled into a fetal position, trying to ease the pain in her abdomen, and cried, not knowing what to do and finally accepting that it didn't really matter. She was trapped here. The _Prometheus _was destroyed, the Engineer's ship had crashed, she had no idea if this little escape vessel was still operational or not. She was trapped, and she was alone. The Engineer was gone, her "children" were dead, her crewmates were dead, Charlie was dead…

She couldn't go on, and there was no reason to do so anyway.

She didn't know how long she lay there, crying from pain and grief and loneliness, but eventually her strength began to give out. Her sobs quieted into soft sniffles as her consciousness began to fade. And although she felt some fear at the idea that she might not wake again once she was out, she mostly felt relief that this ordeal would finally be over.

Then she heard footsteps.

They were long, and they were heavy, and they were coming toward her. And although her mind was beginning to grow rather muddled, she was still able to reason out that the footsteps could only mean one thing.

The Engineer had returned.

Shaw sighed and didn't bother to open her eyes, knowing she didn't have the strength to fight back if it decided it wanted to finish her off. She could only hope that the Engineer would make it quick.

She felt it standing over her in silence for a long time, while she lay there and waited for death. A part of her wanted to look up at the creature, to see what it was doing and why it was taking so long, but another, stronger part of her wanted to keep her eyes shut. As much as she accepted the inevitability of things, she had to admit she was still afraid of the towering humanoid.

It watched her a few moments more, then she felt it kneel down beside her.

She tensed, waiting for the killing strike, but it never came. Instead, she gasped when she felt one of the being's huge hands seize her chin. It pulled her face up roughly, as though inspecting her, and Shaw opened her eyes in spite of her earlier resolve not to.

The Engineer stared down at her, its dark eyes looking almost puzzled…almost _curious. _Shaw stared back at it through a cloud of pain, wondering what it was about her that could have so intrigued the creature. Maybe it was wondering why all the fight had gone out of her. Maybe it was wondering why she had saved it. Maybe it wondering why she was crying. She didn't know, and there was no way to ask it.

The Engineer let go of her face and took hold of her shoulder instead. She moaned as it turned her roughly over onto her back. The being's eyes widened for a moment, and she guessed it had noticed her wounded abdomen. Although she no longer had the strength to raise her head and look, she could feel the wetness of blood trickling down her stomach, and she assumed that some of the blood must have soaked through her suit as well. The Engineer reached out with its other hand and gently felt the wound, as though trying to determine its nature. She whimpered when it pressed down on the injury and the creature's eyes widened slightly again, as if registering something. A moment later, its hand left her belly and slid beneath her knees. The other slid behind her shoulders.

She caught her breath as the humanoid lifted her clumsily into its arms, her gasp one of surprise as well as pain. Then she felt herself moving, and she realized the being was carrying her somewhere. She tried to raise her head to look, but her vision was beginning to swim. All she could see was a blur of sterile white walls and harsh lighting. Suddenly feeling nausea threaten, she closed her eyes and laid her head against the Engineer's chest to steady herself. The odd, rubbery-looking suit it wore was strangely soft against her face; the intricately ridged pattern giving way against the pressure of her head as if it were conforming to her presence. It was surprisingly comfortable, and she huddled against it and did her best to stave off nausea by concentrating on the sound of the humanoid's breathing.

She was only carried for a short ways before she felt another stab of pain in her stomach as the Engineer leaned over and set her on something soft. It felt like a bed or sofa, and she realized that they must be in the living quarters of the escape pod. The Engineer had set her down on one of the couches.

She opened her eyes and saw the humanoid kneeling beside her, looking at her. She almost shut her eyes again at the sight. For some reason, the being's dark eyes unnerved her. They were the least human feature on its face, and they radiated a cold harshness that brought her no comfort. It was the eyes that reminded her that this otherwise very human-looking creature truly was alien. And therefore unpredictable. She wondered what it was going to do with her.

The Engineer unhooked its gaze from her own and looked back down at her wound. It hesitated for a moment, as if unsure what to do next, and then its hands came out and grabbed a hold of her suit. Shaw cried out in surprise as it pulled sharply on the tough blue material, ripping it open. The creature grunted as it tore through her suit as easily as if it had been made of cheesecloth.

She screamed, panic overriding every other feeling for a moment. The Engineer's head snapped up, its dark eyes wide with surprise, and she struck out at it weakly. The attack was pointless-she knew she had absolutely no chance of hurting it, but this monster was _undressing_ her and she felt an instinctive need to defend herself.

Its huge hand came up and caught hold of her wrist, stopping her as easily as if she'd been a young child. A look of annoyance flashed across the humanoid's face, and Shaw pulled away from it with a whimper. It pushed her hand down, then took hold of her suit in its other hand and and continued ripping it open.

Shaw screamed again and tried to kick at the creature, but the movement jarred her wound again and she felt it tear open further. She tried to scream again, but felt blackness rushing in and smothering her, stealing her voice and her sight and her thoughts. She thought she heard the Engineer snarling at her in a harsh, guttural voice, but then the blackness swallowed that up as well and she knew no more.

/ / / / / / / / / /

**I feel bad about killing the little Xenomorph, but there's no other host for him so it had to be done. At least he got more "screentime" than in the actual movie :P**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I don't own this movie or any of its characters. Which is probably a good thing, because if I did, this fic would totally be canon and then I might get rocks thrown at me by the general populace :P**

/ / / / / / / / / / /

She was awakened by a splash of cold water hitting her face. Opening her eyes in surprise, she tried to sit up and immediately cried out in pain. The pain in her abdomen was still unbearable. She collapsed back onto the sofa almost involuntarily and moaned as the action brought on a fresh wave of agony. Gritting her teeth, she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to wait it out.

Almost immediately, she was hit by another splash of cold water, this one larger than before. The pain was forgotten for a moment as she let out a shriek of surprise.

She opened her eyes once more and saw the Engineer kneeling beside her, holding a half-empty bottle of springwater, retrieved, no doubt, from the small refrigerator behind the bar. Its features were twisted in an expression of annoyance, and it looked ready to splash her again if she so much as thought about closing her eyes.

It waited a few moments more, and when it seemed sure she wasn't going to lapse back into unconsciousness, it leaned over her slightly and brought the water bottle up to her lips.

They parted almost unconsciously and let the icy liquid into her mouth and down her throat. She felt relief flood through her body as she drank and realized she must have been teetering on the edge of dehydration. She closed her eyes almost contentedly as she drank several gulps of the liquid.

A moment later the water bottle was pulled from her mouth with a _pop! _Shaw opened her eyes just in time to get water in them as the Engineer splashed her again.

"Stop it!" she spluttered, shaking her head from side to side to get the water off her face. "I'm not going to fall back to sleep!" Giving the humanoid a glare that almost matched its own, she reached up to brush her now wet hair out of her eyes.

She gasped in surprise when she saw her arm was bare, with no sign of the suit she had been wearing earlier. Suddenly remembering just what the Engineer had been doing when she'd lost consciousness, Shaw raised her head and looked down at herself in alarm.

Except for her undergarments, she was naked. Her suit had been completely removed. And worse, her nakedness finally allowed her to get a good look at the wound in her abdomen. She could see now that, while most of the staples had held, the three on the far left had torn loose, causing the wound to re-open in that spot. Her lower torso and legs glistened with the blood that had been seeping from the torn incision. The wound itself opened and closed like a thin, red mouth when she gasped in shock.

Shaw felt nausea and lightheadedness begin to close in around her once more, but she pushed it back, determined not to faint again. Not only did she not want another soaking, but she felt almost irritated with herself at being so squeamish at the sight of a torn surgical incision. She had remained conscious and focused through the operation itself, hadn't she? Surely she could handle a little patching up.

Shaw suddenly felt the humanoid's hands slide beneath her legs and shoulders, just as they had when it had picked her up earlier. This time, however, instead of picking her up, it merely lifted her slightly and moved her into a sitting position. She whimpered and clutched at her stomach, and the movement brought on another attack of lightheadedness, this one stronger than before. She would have lost her balance and fallen off the couch, but the Engineer held onto her upper body to support her, and she steadied herself by leaning against its forearm.

It supported her like that for what felt like several minutes until it seemed sure she could stay upright under her own power. Then, it let go of her and she saw it turn away from her toward the coffee table that was in front of the couch. She was surprised to see a pile of glass vials and tubes and metal instruments all lying on the table. As the Engineer started rummaging through them, Shaw caught sight of a syringe, some sort of pick, and a pair of metal forceps among the riff-raff. Medical instruments. It must have raided the infirmary while she was out.

As she watched, the Engineer gathered up a few of the items and placed them in the palm of its other hand. Then, it turned and held them out to her.

Shaw could only blink at the "offerings." She saw two vials of different antibiotics, some antiseptic, a pair of tweezers and some I.V. tubing. What was she supposed to do with all this? She looked back up at the Engineer questioningly and shook her head slightly, trying to communicate to it that she didn't understand.

The humanoid immediately turned, placed the supplies back on the table, grabbed another group of them, and held them out to her. This time she could see surgical tape, a syringe, anti-coagulant, and two vials of painkillers.

She reached out and snatched both vials of painkillers, as well as the syringe. Beside her, the Engineer gave a satisfied grunt, and nodded its head. It continued to hold the supplies out for her a moment longer, but when it became obvious she wasn't going to take anything else, it turned and put the rest of them back on the table. Soon, it was offering her another handful to inspect.

She finally realized what it was doing. It was trying to treat her wound, but it likely could make absolutely no sense of what the various medical supplies were and what they were for. The items in the infirmary probably seemed as crude and nonsensical to it as the items in a witch-doctor's hut would seem to her. Laughably primitive, and yet, without the witch-doctor's aid, she'd never be able to figure out how to use them.

With the Engineer's help, she picked out several more vials of pain killers, another syringe, a needle and surgical thread, a vial of antibiotics and finally, what she was most interested in, two vials of regenerative solution, one specifically for muscle tissue. The solution used crude nanotechnology to repair tissue, and the fact that she had been giving herself regular injections of it alongside the painkillers was the only reason she had been able to walk at all after the emergency C-section. The technology was still fairly primitive, however, and the repair process wasn't instantaneous. It took time and inactivity for the solution to work properly. The fact that she had been moving around and subjecting her body to extreme stress almost since the operation finished had hampered the process, and kept the wound from properly healing. It had been like picking at a scrape every time it had started to scab over. Hopefully, now that she was safe and could lie down, she would be able to take it easy long enough for the solution to do its work properly.

Once she had everything she needed, she looked down at her wound with misgiving. She knew she was going to have to sew it shut first, before injecting herself with the regenerative solution, but that was going to be difficult to do while sitting up. She needed to be lying down. But if she were lying down, she wouldn't be able to see what she was doing. She realized she needed the Engineer's help.

She looked back up at it with misgiving. If it didn't know what the needle and thread were even _for, _how could she ever expect it to sew her up competently? In fact, it was looking at the surgical instruments with a sort of…baffled horror, as if it were trying to guess what they were for and none of the guesses were pleasant.

She sighed and shook her head. She would have to do the sewing herself. But maybe it could help…support her or something. She thought she might be able to make it understand how to do that.

Before she worried about that, however, she needed to numb the area. She picked up the syringe and one of the vials of painkillers. Quickly, she filled the syringe, then injected the solution into her abdomen right above the wound. She sighed in relief when she felt immediate, if not complete numbness begin to spread over the area. After being in such severe pain for so long, any bit of relief from it was more than welcome.

Next, she set the syringe aside and picked up the curved needle. She threaded it with the surgical thread, leaving a long length of thread attached to it. Single stitches were certainly sturdier and would be ideal, but she lacked the strength and the patience to bother with cutting the thread, tying it off, and re-threading the needle after every stitch. She would just have to hope that a single row of continuous stitches would hold out until the wound healed.

Now came the hard part. She looked back up at the humanoid and it raised its head up from looking at the needle to meet her gaze. Hesitantly, she reached out with her free hand and touched one of the being's hands, which was resting on the sofa cushion. The Engineer almost jumped, looking down with wide eyes at the hand she'd laid upon it. Her breath caught in fear as she wondered if the action had angered it. Maybe it was revolted at the thought of a lesser creature like a human touching it without permission.

Still, she didn't really know how else to make it understand what she wanted it to do. Trying to ignore her fear, she forced herself to take hold of its huge hand, more than twice the size of her own. It was smooth and hairless and strangely soft against her fingers, but she didn't let herself pause to get used to the sensation. Instead, she lifted its hand from the sofa cushion and guided it to the small of her back. Surprisingly enough, the Engineer didn't try to resist her, almost as if confusion had stunned it.

Once it got the idea she wanted it to support her back, she pointed to its other hand, which was too far away for her to reach. The Engineer lifted it obediently, a baffled look on its face. She motioned for the creature to place it underneath her knees, just as it had done when it had picked her up earlier. At first the baffled look remained on the being's face, but then Shaw suddenly saw understanding twinkle to life in its dark eyes, as if someone had flipped on light switch inside its head. It almost would have been comical if she hadn't been so uncomfortable.

Her discomfort wasn't brought on only by the now fading pain in her belly either. Now that the Engineer was actually touching her, she couldn't help but be reminded of her lack of clothing…and the unmistakable _maleness _of the alien who was now cradling her body. She suddenly felt a blush creeping onto her cheeks as he-no, _it-_slid its hand beneath her legs and lifted them slightly

But doctoring was more important than modesty. She knew she simply had to do her best to put her discomfort from her mind and get to work. She tried to remind herself that this being probably thought of her as lower than an animal, and therefore, she doubted it would have any type of sexual thoughts upon seeing her half-naked.

Avoiding eye contact with the Engineer, Shaw leaned back slightly against the creature's arm. To her relief, it got the idea rather quickly and she felt it adjust its arm so that she was leaning further back, but still supported. Wincing a bit, she tried to raise her legs slightly and the Engineer took the hint and lifted them. After making a few more adjustments to her makeshift "chair," Shaw looked down at her wounded abdomen with relief. From this position, the injury and the area around it were flat and easy for her to both see and reach.

Wincing a bit, she reached out and pulled the three broken surgical staples out of the wound. Thankfully, the painkillers had done their work and she only felt a slight tug when she yanked the staples free. Once that was taken care of, she inserted the needle into the wound, relieved that she could barely feel it penetrate her skin. Wanting to get the stitches over with, she quickly pulled it through the tear, then started on the next stitch. Sweat beaded on her brow as she concentrated, and she thought she heard the Engineer catch its breath as it watched her apparently crude doctoring. She ignored it, not wanting to be distracted by its contempt or its disgust, or the idea of its eyes on her semi-naked body. She completed the third and fourth stitches with little difficulty, then tied off the end of the thread.

She let out her breath in relief as she looked down at her coarse handiwork. The stitches weren't pretty, and they didn't look terribly strong either, but they would hold, so long as she remained still and quiet. Besides, they only needed to hold until the regenerative solution could do its work, and that would only take a few days at most.

The stitches finished, she picked up the second syringe and filled it with the tissue repairing solution. She injected that into the site of the wound, pushing the needle in as deeply as possible. The wound was made up of several layers of severed tissues, after all, and it was especially important to her that the deepest layer be tended to. She knew her chances of ever bearing children…well, _more _children anyway, had decreased even further given the damage to her womb from the emergency surgery, but she was unable to give the organ up for lost. If there was a slight chance she could heal the damage, she wanted to do so. Even after everything that had happened, even when looking at the hopelessness of her situation, even with her future now so very uncertain, she realized she still wasn't able to let go of the idea of somehow finding a way to be a mother someday. A _real _mother, not merely the incubation chamber for twisted monsters created by some sort of genetically modifying ooze.

Finally almost finished, she added a third injection, this one of antibiotics to ward off any infection. She didn't know if there were any native pathogens that could have gotten into the wound, and whether earth-antibiotics would be effective against them, but she supposed it couldn't hurt to dose herself with them just in case.

Finally finished with her doctoring, she let out a sigh of relief and laid the syringe on the sofa cushion beside her. Then she looked back up at the humanoid…and almost laughed. It wore an expression of what she could only read as fascinated disgust. It looked like it couldn't believe it had just watched her sew herself back together and then stick needles into her flesh to deliver various medicines to her body. She supposed it and its kind probably had some sort of device that quickly and painlessly healed any injury with the press of a button…and probably gave the patient a lollipop afterward too. Such a device probably made her emergency first-aid look as primitive and barbaric as the old practice of using leeches for bloodletting would look to her. In fact, if the creature had opened its mouth at that moment, she wouldn't have been surprised to hear "EWWWW!" come out of it.

She bit back the rather childish giggle that was threatening, since she didn't know what the Engineer's reaction to her laughing at it would be, and she didn't really want to find out. It certainly didn't seem like it had much of a sense of humor, anyway, during her admittedly limited interactions with it. Why risk making it grouchy again?

Instead, she smiled weakly at the being, the only way she could hope to communicate her appreciation for its help. Then, she held out a hand and motioned for it to set her down.

The sofa creaked slightly as it set her back down and she let out another sigh of relief, grateful for the softness of the fabric and cushions beneath her. Now that the immediate danger was past and the pain had subsided, her mind was finally free to notice the exhaustion of her body. She suddenly surprised herself by letting out a yawn. Sleepiness, which had apparently been waiting in the wings all this time, had taken advantage of her relaxed state and pounced.

Still, she didn't really want to fall asleep next to a bunch of glass vials and unprotected needles. She reached out groggily and gathered up her discarded supplies in one hand, then held it out, hoping the Engineer would figure out she wanted it to take them from her.

To her relief, she felt its hand touch hers for a moment as it closed over the medical supplies and lifted them from her hand. There was a soft clatter as the being must have set them back on the table. Then there was another sound, a soft _sloshing _sound, as though the creature had picked up something filled with liquid.

Realizing what that meant, she opened her eyes again with a squeak and wasn't surprised to see the humanoid holding the water bottle again. This time, however, instead of splashing her, it reached behind her and gently lifted her head up, then placed the bottle to her lips once more.

She seized the bottle eagerly, pulling it from the creature's hands, but thankfully, the Engineer didn't stop her. Shaw held the bottle in both hands and gratefully sucked the liquid down, thirst being another sensation she was finally beginning to notice once more. In fact, its voice was almost as powerful as that of exhaustion.

In the end, however exhaustion won out. After a few more swallows, she let the bottle slip from her mouth, and almost immediately, the Engineer took it from her. There was still a bit of liquid inside, however, and the slight splash it made when the creature took it made her open her eyes with alarm. Was it going to-?

The humanoid seemed almost as surprised as she was at her reaction. It actually pulled back slightly at the sound of her gasp. Shaw could only look at the bottle in its hands apprehensively. The being looked at her, then at the water bottle, a quizzical look on it face. It held the bottle back out to her and she winced.

Comprehension once again twinkled to life in the humanoid's eyes and it quickly turned and set the bottle back on the table with a _thunk! _Then it turned back to her and nodded with what looked almost like a hopeful expression.

Satisfied that it wasn't going to stop her from going back to sleep, Shaw closed her eyes once again. Her lips parted slightly and a soft sound of contentment came out, little more than a sigh, but she hoped it would clue the Engineer in that she was all right now and it didn't need to worry about her anymore. She just wanted it to let her sleep right now.

She still felt the humanoid's presence over her as she lay there, and she couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy. Although she no longer feared it would hurt her, she still didn't like it looking at her while she was so uncovered. She wished she had a blanket or something to cover up with, but she had no idea where bedding might be kept, and she was too tired to try and figure out how to ask the Engineer to see if it could find her one.

Instead, she tried to put the being's presence from her mind by thinking of something else...something far more comforting. Her first thought was Charlie, but the pain and grief over his death were still too fresh for his memory to bring her any comfort. Pushing the pain away, she dug deeper. She briefly considered praying, but for some reason, she felt almost…uncomfortable with the idea of speaking to God. No…not uncomfortable. _Afraid. _Afraid that her anger about everything that had happened would come out…or perhaps even afraid that she would come to realize that everything that had happened was her fault. That she deserved this somehow. That God was disappointed in her, or worse, angry with her.

It was cowardly, and she suspected that these thoughts were wrong for her to have, but it was the way things were right now. She couldn't face her fears…or her god…at this moment. Instead, she turned to the memory of someone else. Someone who carried no guilt…no fear…no judgment. Only love for her.

She thought of exciting trips to exotic locals. Of intelligent conversations where she was never treated like a child. Of laughter and light and love. Of a gentle voice, praising her for her accomplishments…sharing her joy when she was happy…soothing her when she was sad…comforting her when she was afraid…

Her lips curled into as slight smile. _Daddy…_

Elizabeth Shaw drifted off to sleep surrounded by memories of home and family and love, leaving a single being behind…and alone…to watch over her.

/ / / / / / / / / /

**Yay, maybe she'll stop whining about her wounded tummy so much now. Even I'm starting to get tired of it :P**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

She lay on a narrow bed inside some dark structure-sometimes she thought it was a hut, sometimes a vehicle-where the air felt heavy and oppressive and smelled of dust and rain and decaying vegetation. The air around her was stiflingly hot, but she couldn't stop shivering. She was terribly thirsty, and yet her stomach was so upset that the thought of drinking anything was unbearable. The pain in her joints was unpleasant, but it paled in comparison to the splitting ache in her skull. She was terribly sick, and far from home and safety and comfort. She knew that much, even if the rest of it was hazy.

She moaned softly, needing to put a voice to her discomfort and fear, useless as it was, and suddenly heard the sound of someone approaching. Large, gentle hands steadied her, then reached up to brush the hair off of her damp forehead. The man (she was suddenly sure it was a man, due to the size and rough texture of the hands) seemed to tower over her, even though he seemed to be kneeling. She looked up at him but could only make out his silhouette. But when he leaned over and placed a soft, gentle kiss on her forehead, she found herself smiling, a great deal of her fear and uncertainty gone.

"Daddy?" she asked softly.

"It's all right, Lizzie," came her father's voice. "I think the fever's finally breaking. You'll feel better soon."

She nodded slightly and closed her eyes, feeling relieved. She knew where she was now. She knew what had happened and why she felt so sick. She was with her father somewhere in Africa (she never quite knew where, since they traveled frequently and she still wasn't very familiar with the geography of the place at her age, but he knew, and that was enough for her). She'd gotten sick again, not an unusual occurrence for her since she'd started living there. She'd been vaccinated against all the really nasty diseases, of course, but there were still various illnesses and parasites and infections that a child could catch if she wasn't careful. Which children, of course, seldom were.

She was getting better though. Her father had told her, and he knew these things. She just had to wait a little longer, and everything would be all right again. In the meantime, she knew he would take care of her, so there was no need to worry.

Still, she wondered if there was anything that could be done about the pain in her head. She considered asking if there was any medicine for it, but the idea seemed to fade in and out, and even when she could remember it, she found it hard to figure out how to form the right words. The idea was there, but putting voice to it just took too much…effort.

Instead, she could only lie there, feeling a touch of frustration as time seemed to jump around fitfully and yet, not move forward an inch. Sometimes the pain was fresh and intense, other times it seemed as though it-and the rest of the world-were very far away. Sometimes her sleep was peaceful, other times it was plagued with restless dreams of having strange arguments with people she didn't know, strange frustrating arguments that never seemed to be resolved. She'd wake from them angry and wanting nothing more than to get up and away from the discomfort...and of course, being unable to. What was real and what wasn't began to blur into a frustratingly confusing mess. And through it all, she never really felt any sort of change in her discomfort. Or her surroundings. The hazy idea that she was going to toss and turn forever in this confusing hell occurred to her more than once, but thankfully, that was one bit of unpleasantness she knew needn't trouble her. Because her father was there beside her, and as long as that was the case, she knew everything was going to be all right.

He kept trying to give her water though. She had tried to tell him that she didn't want it, that her stomach was still so painful she was sure she would throw it up, but he had ignored her, almost as if he didn't understand. That was silly though, so she told herself he must be insisting because she was dehydrated. The thought of throwing it up was almost too painful to imagine though, so she kept pushing it away. On what felt like his hundredth attempt, she had finally gotten frustrated at his refusal to listen to her and smacked the bottle out of his hand. She had heard it hit the floor and spill, and this made her feel bad, since she had it in her head that water was scarce where they were right now. Perhaps they were in the desert. She had tried to apologize, but her father had seemed mad anyway.

After that, he had…gone away.

She'd tried moaning, she'd tried crying, she'd tried calling his name, but nothing had made him come back to comfort her. She must have done something really bad when she'd spilled the water. He must be very angry. Maybe even angry enough to abandon her completely, and leave her out in the jungle, or the desert, or wherever they were, to die. The thought was frightening, but mostly it just filled her with an intense loneliness. A loneliness so strong she almost felt like she must be the only being left in the world.

She couldn't do anything about it though, so she waited. For him to come back. Or to feel better. Or to die. For something to change. She knew it had to eventually.

And then, after an indeterminable time, something did.

She woke from another fever-dream to find herself surrounded by an intense cacophony of loud crashes, howling wind and rumbling thunder. Things hit the walls of her shelter with loud _thunks! _Some of them hit hard enough to make the room shake. The roaring of the wind was so loud it seemed as if it might lift her shelter off the ground and carry it away. It both felt and sounded like the end of the world.

She screamed and tried to sit up, her only thought being, sick or not, that she had to get away and find someplace safer. Sitting up, however, caused her aching head to spin so violently that she thought for a moment her fears had come true and she _was _being carried away by the windstorm. She cried out in terror and the action caused the pain in her head to spike, going from "uncomfortable" to "unbearable" in a matter of seconds. This fresh wave of pain caused her to fall sobbing back onto the bed, while around her, the walls of her dwelling rattled and shook with the promise of failure…and of letting the storm have her.

Then, suddenly, underneath the din of the storm and her own wailing, she heard the sound of someone approaching her. She opened her eyes once more and saw a tall figure coming toward her. He had returned.

She tried to cry out her father's name, but pain and fear had dulled the connection between her mind and her body, and all that came out was a low, terrified moan. He seemed to understand though. He knelt down beside her, and one of his hands touched her shoulder. She reached out and grabbed his arm and was startled to find it had a strange, rubbery, ridged texture. The sensation made her cry out in confusion and she cringed away from him, suddenly feeling uneasy. She wanted to ask him what was happening, but was too afraid.

Then he spoke to her.

From his actions, he seemed to be trying to reassure her, but there was nothing reassuring about the low, raspy, grating voice that came from his mouth. There was nothing human about it either. It sounded like the voice of a monster from a horror movie. Or a demon from a nightmare. It spewed a string of snarling gibberish that made her cower against her bed, her arms breaking out in gooseflesh.

She stared up at her father in horror, too dumbfounded by this terrifying turn of events to even act. What had _happened_ to him?

Then there was a flash of lightning from the storm outside, and the entire room was illuminated for a split second. Long enough for her to see that the being kneeling beside her was not her father.

It was a gigantic, hairless, chalk-skinned ghoul with deep black holes where its eyes should be.

She screamed again, terror and revulsion washing over her so strongly that, for a moment, they threatened to steal her sanity. The monster spoke to her again, still in that horrifying rasp, its words still menacing nonsense, and she cringed away from it, curling herself into a protective ball, knowing it would do no good, knowing it wouldn't stop the monster from killing her, but unable to help it regardless. It put the monster from view, and that was all she could do right now. It may kill her, but at least she wouldn't have to look at it.

She felt its fingers touch her back and she whimpered. It pulled away immediately. The action only confused her. Why wasn't it attacking?

There was no other action from the monster for what felt like several minutes, although she could still feel it there beside her. She wanted to look back over at it to try and figure out what it was planning on doing with her, but she was too afraid.

Finally, the creature reached over, took hold of her shoulder, and rolled her gently onto her back. She cried out in fear, but all the monster did once she had been turned over was reach out and place a gentle hand onto her stomach. It pressed down lightly and she winced in pain when she felt its fingers trace a long, thin wound there.

It was the familiar pain of the wound in her abdomen that finally broke her out of the fever-dream and snapped her back to reality, jogging her memory about where she was and what had happened. She was aboard the escape pod. She was lying on one of the couches in the living area, recovering from the wound in her abdomen that had torn open earlier. The creature beside her was not a demon from a nightmare but the Engineer, who had brought her here and was now looking down at her with a worried expression.

Relief flooded over her so strongly that she began weeping, covering her face with her hands childishly, heedless of the storm outside or the pain in her head and abdomen or the Engineer still kneeling beside her. She cried in relief, but eventually, relief changed to fear and despair at the realization that she was not a small, sick child who was safe in her father's care and waiting for a certain recovery. She was badly wounded and trapped on a dangerous planet, while a violent storm raged outside, a storm that she didn't know if the escape pod could survive. And she was alone…or nearly so, her only companion being an alien who she could not understand and who barely knew how to care for her and who hated her entire species. Everyone else who had accompanied her to this place was dead.

And her father was dead too.

As fear changed to grief, her sobs increased until she was bawling. For a brief moment, even if it was only due to a fever dream, she had thought he was there beside her. And now, waking from the dream tore her away from him and reminded her that he was long dead, and what she had thought was him had probably only been the Engineer taking care of her. All the grief she'd tried to repress since she was young came flooding back, and in the midst of her pain and fear and despair, she didn't have the strength to hold it back.

She heard the Engineer saying something to her, and while its voice no longer seemed menacing, it still brought her no comfort. Not only could she not understand it, but its voice was so alien that it simply seemed unsuited for the task. If that was even what the creature was trying to do, anyway. There was no way for her to know.

When its words had no effect, the humanoid must have decided to try a new tactic. She felt it turn away from her and a moment later she heard a clatter. Then, one of its hands seized hold of her shoulder and shook her. She opened her eyes, tears still spilling out of them and saw that it had a handful of medical supplies. They might have been the same ones she had used earlier (perhaps the creature had had enough foresight to set them aside so the two of them wouldn't have to pick through that huge pile again), but she was crying too hard to get a good look at them. It held the handful of them practically in her face, and the look its own face was almost a hopeful desperation.

Somewhere, in the now buried rational part of her mind, she knew it was trying to figure out how to help her, but right now the uselessness of the gesture only pissed her off. Like a child having a tantrum, she pushed the Engineer's hand away with an angry shout.

Or tried to. The huge creature's hand stayed where it was and she only ended up bruising her own hand trying to smack at something so much larger than herself. The Engineer got the idea, however, and it turned away and set the supplies back on the table with a clatter.

Then it turned back toward her and she saw it was holding that infernal water-bottle.

_"NO!" _ she screamed at it, an irrational fury beginning to take hold. "I don't _want _any more goddamn water!"

The Engineer stared at her with wide, dark eyes, looking almost taken aback.

Suddenly feeling embarrassed as well as angry and sad and miserable, she turned away from the creature and hid her face in her hands while she cried. She felt its hand touch her shoulder again, but she ignored it, knowing there was nothing the creature could do to help her and hating it for that. And for putting her into this mess in the first place. And for not being her father. She almost thought that that was what made her hate the creature most of all.

There was suddenly a loud crash outside as something (a large rock, most likely) struck one of the windows of the escape pod, shaking the entire ship.

She cried out in terror, her anger and grief forgotten. Once again knowing there was nothing she could do, she curled into a frightened ball and waited for the end.

The end didn't come though. The only thing that happened was that, after a few minutes of watching her cower like that, the Engineer leaned over her once more and slipped its arms around her protectively.

It didn't pick her up, or even truly embrace her, but it did encircle her with its arms and lean over her, creating a protective little shelter for her with its body. The flashes of lightning dimmed and the noise of the storm was muffled as she was encased in warm, soothing darkness.

She reached out and clung to the creature instinctively, almost without realizing what she was doing, and she felt it draw its breath in sharply. Ignoring its gasp, she wrapped her arms around it (not exactly an easy feat, given its size, but she managed) and pressed her face against its chest. It let her, and she nestled against it, while around her, the sounds of the storm faded into the background as she concentrated only on the strength of its arms and the warmth of its body and the loud, steady beating of its heart.

Shaw lost track of how long she stayed there like that, clinging to the Engineer while the storm raged outside. The humanoid still didn't hold her, or caress her, or do anything else to comfort her, but it stayed with her and protected her with its body. The gesture was more symbolic than anything, since the powerful winds outside would have surely swept even a creature of its large size away easily, but it soothed her nonetheless. It may not have technically been any safer, but it was better than lying alone and exposed and frightened on the couch.

She sniffled against the creature's chest, her tears sliding easily down the slick, rubbery material of its suit. There was a rumbling against her cheek as the creature spoke to her, revealing her earlier belief about its voice to have been wrong. Whatever it said did indeed sound gentle and comforting. The words were different and the sound was much, much deeper, but the tone was the same one that her father had used to soothe her in the dream. To soothe her in her memories.

"_It's all right, Lizzie," _she heard him whisper. "_Everything is going to turn out all right."_

She smiled slightly, even as a fresh wave of tears welled up in her eyes and slipped down her cheeks. She still missed him terribly, even after all these years. She had done her best to move past the grief of losing him, even managed it most of the time, but there were still times, times like this, when it all came boiling to the surface, fresh as it had been on the day he'd died.

She hadn't been able to see him at the end. They wouldn't let her, for fear she'd be infected too. Instead, they had taken him, still conscious and lucid, into a large cafeteria that served as a makeshift infirmary, and she had never seen him again. He had disappeared from her life as if someone had flipped a switched and eradicated him from existence. They had told her it was for the best, that she didn't want to see him toward the end, with blood leaking from every orifice and his face a swollen, blotchy purple color, but it only made things worse for her, because then she had to imagine what his last moments were like. She often doubted that the reality, horrific as it was, could be any worse than the ghastly images that appeared in her mind when she cried over him…or when she woke from nightmares in the middle of the night.

"Daddy…" she whimpered, missing him, grieving for him, wishing her were there to make everything all right.

And this time, at the sound her voice, the Engineer's arms tightened around her, until it really was holding her. Its hand came up and rubbed her neck…a bit roughly, true, but she could tell that was only due to clumsiness and inexperience, not malice or carelessness.

The action brought a fresh wave of sobs, these almost as powerful as the ones before, but strangely, the reason behind them was much different. They were relieved sobs…almost _contented_. She realized she was crying in gratitude.

The being may have been dangerous, unintelligible, and all but useless when it came to understanding what she needed, but it was still here, still beside her, offering whatever comfort it could. It may not have been much, but it was better than nothing.

"I'm sorry," she whispered softly to it, tightening her arms around it. Sorry for the way she had acted toward it a moment ago. Sorry for getting angry at it. Sorry for being such a disappointment to it and the rest of its people.

But mostly, she was just sorry for hating it. Because she now realized she couldn't.

She needed it too much. Not only to take care of her while she was incapacitated, but also to simply be with her. She was almost completely alone on this hellish planet…in fact, she was almost completely alone in her hellish existence. All her loved ones were as dead as the crewmembers who had accompanied her out here. This being, unintelligible, violent alien creature, was the only companionship she had during this ordeal. The one tiny speck of comfort she still had left in the world.

No, she couldn't hate it. She didn't have the luxury.

Instead, she nestled against it once more and allowed herself to place all the faith she'd once had in her father into this powerful creature. Even when the thunder crashed outside and the windows of the little craft shook and rattled, she remained calm. The ship would hold. She knew it would, because the Engineer was not afraid. She detected no fear in its posture, its heartbeat, its breathing. It was not afraid because it knew the little craft was sturdy. How it could possibly know that, when it had no knowledge of the ship or how anything worked, and therefore no ability to tell if anything was damaged, remained a distant, academic concern. It knew. Knew because it was older than her, stronger than her, wiser than her. It knew because she needed that to be true. She needed something she could place a childlike faith in right now. It was the only way she was going get through this

They were safe. She was safe. It was going to be all right.

Finally letting go of the Engineer's chest, she laid back down on the couch, curling into a fetal position as she nestled against the creature. To her relief, it remained the way it was, huddled over her, protecting her from the noise and the cold and her fear, creating a warm little shelter with its arms for her to huddle in while she waited for the storm to subside. She yawned, suddenly feeling sleepy in the warm, cozy darkness, and she shut her eyes. She still felt pain in her head and a bit of nausea in her stomach…she probably should have some more water and inject herself with more painkillers and maybe some antibiotics as well, but all that seemed unimportant compared to staying snuggled up next to the Engineer, safe and warm. Right now, she didn't want to do anything that would require leaving the shelter of its strong arms.

That only left sleep, and so, with a soft sigh, she closed her eyes once more and drifted off into slumber surrounded by warmth and the sound of a gentle, steady heartbeat.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

**Elizabeth's going through a rough time right now, but I promise she isn't going to stay a damsel in distress for the entire fic :P**

**Also, I was very lucky to have someone enjoy this fic enough that they drew some fanart for it! If you want to see it, check out this link (take out the spaces)**

** : / nuclear-metallity . deviantart gallery/#/d5bw2sr**

**I can't thank you enough, Nuclear-metallity, it's just lovely. You're all kinds of awesome! :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

She was gradually and relentlessly pulled back from the depths of sleep by several things-hunger, cold, pain, and the need to pee. She tried to push the feelings back at first, not wanting to wake just yet, but they continued to increase and eventually, brought her far enough back into the waking world that she realized they weren't going to go away. Finally, reluctantly, she opened her eyes.

It was morning. A cold, almost bleak light was spilling in through the window, and when she raised her head she could see the desolate landscape outside was bathed in a reddish glow. The sun was an angry red sliver peeking over the rocky cliffs in the distance.

It looked like the escape pod had survived the night. And so had she.

She also felt much better. The fever had gone way back, and her head felt clearer. And the pain in her abdomen was also much less fierce than it had been yesterday. She uncurled from the fetal position she had been lying in and the pain in her belly increased sharply…but it was bearable. She was healing.

The Engineer was no longer huddled over her the way it had been during the storm, but it was still there next to her. It had fallen asleep kneeling beside the couch and now lay with its head resting on its outstretched arms, which in turn were resting on the couch cushions.

She almost smiled. The way the creature was slumped over almost reminded her of a student who had fallen asleep at his desk after pulling an all-nighter. In fact she felt an amusing urge to drape a blanket over the creature's shoulders and give it a kiss on the forehead.

Instead, however, she wondered if she should wake it up. Sleeping like that couldn't be very comfortable, and perhaps it wanted to lie down instead. Of course, if she woke it up now, it would probably just get up, since the sun had already cleared the horizon. And she didn't want that. It had had just as rough of a time as she had yesterday, and it probably needed sleep.

Besides…she realized that she hadn't had a chance to closely study one of these humanlike aliens she had traveled so far to find. The head she'd retrieved from the caves had been destroyed relatively quickly, and of course, there had been way too much else going on when they'd woken this Engineer up. Now, with it sleeping only a few feet away from her, she was finally free to take a closer look.

Her eyes were immediately drawn to its smooth, pale skin, which practically gleamed as the rays of the early-morning sun touched it. It almost looked translucent, the secret network of veins just beneath the skin easily visible when the light hit it. It was just as pale as the skin of the dead Engineer she'd studied earlier, but so much more vibrant, and she found herself wishing she could reach out and touch it. Of course, that would be a bad idea. The creature would surely wake up.

Unless…

Unless she was very careful…

She reached out hesitantly, but her hand only made it halfway to the sleeping Engineer before she pulled it away again. She was too afraid to take the chance. If it woke up, she had no idea what it would do to her. She doubted she'd be very happy with someone putting their hands on her while she slept, so it seemed logical to assume this creature would also be unhappy with the idea. She really didn't want to risk making it angry. As kind as it had been to her yesterday, she was still afraid of it. It was too hard to know how it would react to things, and too dangerous to take chances with its temper. If something she did made it want to rip her head off the way it had David's, or toss her against the wall the way it had done to Ford, there was little she could do to stop it.

Instead, she leaned back slightly against the couch, settling down into a more comfortable position while she watched it sleep. She was surprised to find that it was strangely handsome when its face was peaceful and at rest. Its features were heavy and masculine, but there was softness, almost a gracefulness to the curve of its powerful jaw, the angle of its strange nose, the swoop of its thick brow ridges. Its eyes were deeply set and heavy lidded, giving it a tired, almost world-weary expression, even while asleep. And its lips were slightly full and soft-looking, and the same soft white as the rest of its skin.

She realized she was smiling slightly, and she forced the grin from her face. Here she was, trapped with a genocidal monster who had slaughtered several of her crewmates, and she was smiling at it like it like she was sixteen and the creature was some hunky lifeguard walking past her on a beach.

The thought made her smile again, though in amusement this time. She had to admit it was a funny mental picture, even if she knew that her fascination had nothing to do with the Engineer's supposed handsomeness. If she did notice it, it was more just as part of a general fascination with its appearance. A fascination which she was perfectly justified in having, she reminded herself. These were the aliens she had longed to find for so long. Of course she would want to study their appearance. To marvel at the similarities and speculate on the differences.

On a whim, she reached out a hand and placed it next to the Engineer's own outstretched hand, their fingers almost touching. Its hand was even more humanlike than its face, the only differences between it and her own being size and color and lack of hair. Those were enough though, and she couldn't help but notice how childlike and almost _primitive_ her hand, with its fine smattering of hair, looked beside the Engineer's large, flawless one.

The familiar feelings of rejection and inadequacy she had felt yesterday came rushing back, and she pulled her hand away and looked back up at the humanoid's sleeping face almost reproachfully. It slumbered on, its face looking handsome and serious and noble, its cares greater than her own, its purpose more important, its business more serious. Far too grand to ever bother to worry about a tiny, hairy, insecure failed experiment like herself.

Her face twisted slightly in anger when she realized she was being unfair to herself. This creature may have _looked _noble, but its actions yesterday and the discoveries they had made since landing here had cast it and its people in anything but a positive light. It probably deserved as much contempt as she would normally reserve for the most monstrous dictators in the history books.

She sighed as her eyes came to rest once again on its peaceful, sleeping face. It was hard to muster up any contempt at the moment, what with it looking so peaceful and vulnerable. It was even harder to make herself feel contempt for it after it had been so kind to her during the storm last night. She tried to remind herself that one good deed directed at herself didn't absolve it of its crimes, nor was it right for her to overlook them because she personally hadn't been harmed. But such reasoning did no good. She still couldn't make herself hate the slumbering Engineer.

Which was probably just as well. She hadn't forgotten the conclusion she'd come to last night. That she needed it too much to hate it right now. Hatred was not practical at this point. So if she couldn't muster up any sort of loathing for it, despite the fact that it certainly deserved it, that was probably a good thing.

She sighed again. That felt like a cop-out, but there was no help for it. She didn't know what else to do.

Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that it had been a long time since she'd eaten anything. Not since breakfast yesterday. She and Charlie had eaten it together. He'd still been alive then.

Grief forced itself inside of her like an unwelcome visitor, hollowing out her chest and making her throat close up, but she pushed it back. She didn't want the Engineer to wake up and find her crying. She'd humiliated herself enough in front of it already.

Once she had regained her composure, she decided it was time to wake the creature up. Her wound was better then it had been yesterday, but she still didn't think she should chance walking. She needed the Engineer to get her more medicine, and water, and food. And maybe a blanket if it could find her one.

She laughed at her mental demands. There was very little difference between a sick person and royalty, as far as how they expected to be treated. At least in the former case, it was out of necessity, but she still felt like a royal pain.

_Quit putting it off. Wake him up._

Him? Was the being a "him" now?

Strangely enough, she wasn't ready for that, although she could not say why.

_Wake _it_ up then._

She reached out to shake its shoulder. And hesitated again, when her eyes fell on the odd texture of its neck, so close to her hand now. She supposed….she supposed…

She supposed it couldn't hurt to touch it…as long as she was going to be touching the creature anyway to wake it up. If it woke up while she had her hands on it, she could just pretend that she was just getting ready to shake it awake. And she was terribly curious about how its flesh and rubbery suit seemed to _merge _together like that.

Summoning up all the courage she could muster, she placed a single finger onto the sleeping Engineer's neck. The flesh there was warm and soft, but also felt tough beneath her fingers. And it had a similar texture to its suit, although not nearly as rubbery. Which surprised her a bit. She had expected the merge between flesh and suit to be a clean one, that she would be able to identify by feel which parts were skin and which parts were suit. True, the merge appeared to be a gradual one-she could tell that just by looking. But she thought that she would be able to feel a…seam of some sort. Somewhere. A marker where flesh ended and inorganic material began. A clue as to how the merge was accomplished. But that wasn't the case at all. It was as if suit and flesh had actually mixed together and taken on each other's properties. The further down its neck she moved her fingers, the more rubbery the combination became. The further up she moved them, the softer and fleshier it felt. The transition between the two was seamless.

On a whim, she suddenly trailed her fingers from the base of its neck upward toward its head, feeling her fingers go over each "bump" in the skin, feeling the ridges become softer and more alive as she moved along them.

He fingers cleared the final ridge and now were traveling along the smooth white perfection of its skin. It was every bit as lovely as she had imagined. She had wondered if the creature would have tough skin, maybe even cold skin, due to the gleaming whiteness of it, but she now knew that to be completely wrong. Its skin was softer and smoother than a baby's, and she wondered for a moment how it could possibly go around in something so delicate and perfect. How could it not be torn, be marred, be ruined at the slightest touch, the slightest scratch? Perhaps that was the reason for the leathery suit covering most of its body, but she didn't think so. How had they been able to survive before they had invented clothing that functioned as a second skin?

She pushed the question aside for now and traced her finger along the curve of the creature's jawline, moved it up behind its ear, so large and humanlike, and then, skirting the glistening wound that covered much of the left side of its face, slid it along the almost perfectly rounded dome of its skull. Then it traveled downward, tracing one of the Engineer's thickened brow-ridges, following the wise, elegant curves to the bridge of its nose, where the two brow ridges met to form a slight triangle between its eyes. She traced her fingertip along this slight indentation with a smile.

A smile that dropped off her face instantly when her eyes traveled a few inches below her finger to the creature's eyes.

They were open.

She drew back with a gasp, her momentum strong enough that she actually hit the back of the couch and bounced forward slightly. Useless, discoordinated sounds came from her lips as she tried to stammer an apology, an apology that was useless because the Engineer could not understand it. She suddenly felt herself trembling.

_Calm down, _she tried to tell herself. _It's not going to kill you. It played nursemaid to you yesterday and sat up with you half the night. Why would it kill you now, after going through all that, just because it caught you poking at it? _

But rationalization did little to quiet the primitive fear within her. It didn't change the fact that this being could do anything it wanted to her, she'd violated its privacy and she didn't know how it would react to that.

It didn't give her long to wonder, however. It regarded her blankly for a moment longer, then unhooked its eyes from her own and raised its head sleepily to glance at the window, and the daylight coming in.

The familiar feeling of being unimportant welled up inside of her again, but she squashed it angrily. A second ago she'd been terrified the humanoid wouldn't just shrug off her busy fingers. And now that it had, she was angry with it? How was she ever going to make this strange alien understand her if she couldn't even understand herself right now?

And besides, if she wanted it to pay attention to her, maybe she should do something besides stare at it with her mouth half-open.

She shut her mouth and cleared her throat, loud enough to make the Engineer's dark eyes dart back over in her direction.

"Good morning," she said, her tone friendly.

Its response was a mighty yawn.

As she tried to remind herself that is wasn't dismissing her, that it simply had no idea what she'd said to it and therefore had no idea how to respond, she saw the humanoid wince slightly, as the movement of its facial muscles had jarred the open wound on its face. It raised a hand to its cheek and touched the blistered skin gingerly.

Shaw made a concerned noise in her throat. That would have to be tended to. She wondered if it would let her look at it later. She wasn't sure how much she could do with the supplies she had, but she could at least clean and bandage it and perhaps give the humanoid some antibiotics.

Finished with its inspection of its wound, the Engineer started to get up…and winced sharply, as if it had accidentally knelt on a tack. It pitched to the right, as though it suddenly couldn't support its weight on that side and Shaw let out a shriek of alarm as it over balanced and fell sideways. She reached out and seized its shoulder, trying to help it stay upright.

She knew instantly that that action would soon find a place near the top of the list of Dumbest Things She'd Ever Done. She wasn't nearly strong enough to pull such a massive creature back, and instead, she ended up being pulled down with it when it fell. It fell over and hit the coffee table with a _thud _and she fell over on top of it with a shriek.

_Oh God, it's definitely going to kill me now!_ she realized in terror as she felt it flail beneath her. It was snarling something in its deep, rumbly voice that, from the sound of it, could be nothing other than curse words. _I'm done for!_

But instead of killing her, it twisted into a sitting position as quick as a flash. It scooped her up with surprising gentleness and set her back on the couch. She saw it wince slightly again, and noticed that it still seemed to be favoring its right side. It ignored the pain, however, and soon its hands were touching the wound in her abdomen, feeling it, checking to see if anything had come loose.

Shaw knew she could thank her lucky stars one by one, because nothing had. She could feel it.

Apparently, the Engineer felt it too, because it took its hands away a moment later, a relieved expression on its face.

"I'm sorry," Shaw offered up uselessly.

The humanoid looked at her a moment more, seemed to consider her, then gave her an almost offhand pat on the shoulder before turning away from her and leaning over. Its head disappeared from her view and all she could see for a few moments was its broad, intricately patterned back as she heard it rummaging around on the floor, picking up the medical supplies that had fallen off the table.

Soon it popped back up, holding a handful of glass vials and pointed metal. It turned to put them back on the table, but paused when she called out "Wait!"

The being turned back to her, and she pointed to the medical supplies it was holding. Its heavy brows knit together in confusion for a moment, as if it was wondering why she needed them when she hadn't been hurt. Maybe it didn't realize that human medicine often needed more than one application. She was sure its Engineer medicine didn't.

She pointed to the handful of supplies again. The Engineer hesitated a moment longer, then finally held them out to her, its expression clearly stating that it found her request to be an odd one.

She picked through them and found more regenerative solution, antibiotics and a syringe, but she had to have it gather up the stuff still on the table and let her look through it before she was able to find the painkillers.

She smiled at the creature and nodded her thanks, then got to work. The wound in her abdomen looked much better today, the flesh looking like it had begun to knit and the red color faded to a dull brown. As long as she kept her activity to a minimum (and didn't fall off of any more couches), she thought she might be healed up enough to get up and walk around by tomorrow.

Once she was finished injecting herself with the various medicines, she looked back up at the Engineer to find that it was wearing the same disgusted expression as yesterday. Suddenly tired of feeling like some primitive caveman on display, Shaw battled with a childish urge to stick her tongue out at the creature. She won (for now), and instead reached out to hand the supplies back to the Engineer. It wrinkled its nose in distaste as she held out the instruments, and the action made it wince again.

"Are you all right?" The useless words came unbidden to her lips, but she didn't beat herself up for them. She couldn't _never _talk in its presence, after all. That would drive her crazy. If it couldn't understand her, so be it. People talked to a lot of things that didn't understand them. Animals, babies, machines…it was just human nature to address the things around you. Besides, maybe the Engineer would be able to read her tone, if nothing else, and know she was asking about it in concern. It was possible her words could accomplish something, if that was the case.

The Engineer was ignoring her, however, and concentrating once again on gingerly feeling the huge wound that covered the left side of its face.

"That looks bad," she told it. "Do you want me to look at it?"

It ignored her, its face twisted into a grimace of pain as it probed the wound.

"Hey!" she said more sharply, trying to get the creature's attention. It looked back up at her and she held out the handful of vials and syringes she had used on her own injury. "Do you want me to look at your wound?" she asked again, stretching out each syllable in that stupid way people often did when they were talking to someone who didn't understand English.

Its eyes darted to the supplies in her hand and its expression clouded. She had the feeling it understood now, but just to be sure, she pointed to the supplies in her hand, then pointed at the Engineer's injury.

This time, there was no doubt it understood. Its eyes widened in horror and it drew backward so sharply that it hit the coffee table behind it with a _clonk!_ There was a clatter as the medical supplies on the table fell to the floor again, but it was drowned out by Engineer spewing out a string of what she suspected were curses. She thought she might have even recognized a few of the words from earlier, when the two of them had fallen over. The creature's hand left its face and started rubbing the small of its back instead.

"I'm sorry!" she told it, even though she'd done nothing wrong. "Are you all right?"

Its only response was a nasty glare that made her shrink back against the couch.

"I…I…uh…" she stammered, trying to think of something to say. It looked like useless babble was going to win out again. "I'm…uh….I'm sorry I…uh….startled you, b-but you really should…uh…let me look at that," she said, gesturing to its injury. "I know….uh…I know you don't like the needles, but…but you can't just go around like that. It could get infected and…and the medicine will help." She held out the handful of supplies again, her expression hopeful.

Its response was to get hurriedly to its feet. It winced as it did so, and Shaw saw that it was still favoring its right side. As it got to its feet, she saw why. It had a nasty gash on that leg, just above the knee. She hadn't realized how badly the Engineer had been injured yesterday. She'd been too concerned with her own injuries.

_Hmmph. Serves him right, after what he tried to do. _She glared after him…_it_… as it headed toward the doorway, although ridiculously, her annoyance had more to do with its refusing treatment than its attempted genocide. Was it just going to walk around with gaping wounds on its body then? She had a feeling it was going to be in world of pain before long, much more pain than a little needle stick would bring it. She was almost tempted to call it a baby if she hadn't known that the insult would sail right over the Engineer's head just like everything else she'd said to it.

It hit the button that operated the doorway, then strode out into the hallway without so much as a look back.

"Where are you going?" she called after it, knowing it would almost certainly hear her question only as more unintelligible complaining from the whiny little brat it was taking care of, but unable to stop herself. Was it so scared of needles it was actually afraid to remain in the same _room _as her? Or was it leaving her here, having assumed she would be all right now? The thought sent a cold wave of alarm through her, but she squashed it quickly when she remembered that its ship had crashed. Perhaps there was a way to repair it, but even if there was, it would probably take quite a while. It certainly wasn't going to be leaving today, anyway. It would come back.

The rapidly increasing pain in her bladder that she'd trying her hardest to ignore put an end to any further speculating about the Engineer's destination. She looked around the room uncomfortably, wondering where the bathroom was. She was sure there was one here, but…

_But nothing_, she decided. She could walk. She'd been in much worse pain yesterday and had been _running, _for crying out loud! True, she didn't want to risk jarring the wound as it was healing, but she thought it would be all right, as long as she walked slowly and was careful.

Wincing in anticipation, she slid her feet off the couch and onto the floor. To her relief, there was only a dull ache in her abdominal muscles as she straightened up. Moving slowly and carefully, as if she were made out of delicate blown glass, Shaw turned in a circle, scanning the room for doorways.

She found one in a small alcove on the other side of the room behind the couch and hobbled toward it, hoping she was going to make it. Now that the destination was in sight, her body's warning to her had seemed to go up several degrees in the urgency department.

She crossed the last few feet in a hunched over, shuffling run, and pushed the narrow little door open, revealing an equally narrow room. To her relief, it contained a sink, shower stall, and a toilet. She pushed the door shut behind her.

As she sat, she looked around at the sink and shower, wondering where the water came from. A tank of some sort, she guessed, but she couldn't help but wonder at the practicality of that. Water was heavy, after all, and the logistics of carrying a large amount were bound do be complicated. Her best guess was that there were advanced filters and purifiers in the plumbing below, and that that same amount of water was constantly recycled. There was no water at all in the toilet, and she supposed it was probably a chemical toilet.

Hardly a fancy setup, but it would do. Still, she couldn't help wondering how long all of this was going to last. Vickers had said the pod was designed to last about two years, but Shaw knew that there was no guarantee that complicated machinery would cooperate with that estimation. If something did break, she was sure she wouldn't have a clue how to repair it. She doubted the Engineer would have much luck with it either. He didn't even know how to operate a sewing needle.

The thought made her giggle, and then, as if the action had awakened some sort of silliness within her, she suddenly wondered what the Engineer was going to use while it stayed here. Every item in this room was much too small for it.

Her giggles became snickers as she imagined Mr. Holier Than Thou being forced to use an improvised chamber pot…and then dumping it out the door. Or sitting awkwardly on the tiled floor, dabbing at his massive muscled body with a human sized washcloth.

_"Do you want me to scrub your back?" _she suddenly imagined saying to him, and her snickers became outright laughter.

Almost immediately, she doubled over, clutching her stomach. Oh, it hurt to laugh. But at the same time, it felt so wonderful.

The sound of the door to the living area opening announced the Engineer's return. She suddenly got the most irrational idea that it had somehow known she was laughing at it and was storming back in here to give her a piece of its mind. Of course, that was silly, but still, she decided she'd better finish up. It was surely going to wonder where she went, start looking for her, and find this little room. She really didn't want it bursting in and finding her on the toilet.

As she got back to her feet, she heard it make a startled sound, followed by something that sounded like a baffled question.

_Wondering where I am? Well, too bad. If you can just walk out without telling me where you're going, I can too. _The thought was childish, but it was satisfying nonetheless.

She heard a bunch of _thunks _from the living area, as though it had dropped a big armload of something, then the sound of footsteps coming toward the bathroom.

She had just managed to get her underpants back on when the door came swinging rudely open. The Engineer leaned inside, and she almost laughed at it again. Its body was almost too wide to get through the doorway.

It looked at her with a relieved expression, and she couldn't help but feel slightly touched. It had been worried about her. But she was still mostly annoyed at it for barging in on her. She turned and hit the silver button on the top of the toilet pointedly. There was a puff of air as it flushed.

The humanoid's eyes widened as if it finally realized the purpose of the room…and what it had almost walked in on. It withdrew from the doorway immediately. And silently. With a carefully blank expression on its face. That almost made her snicker again.

She heard its footsteps going back to the couch as she washed her hands in the tepid water from the sink. Back to pick up whatever it had dropped? Seized with a sudden curiosity, Shaw quickly finished washing her hands and shuffled back out the door.

She returned to find it sitting on the floor near the couch, a bunch of boxes and cans and jars with plain, nondescript labels on the floor in front of it. Crackers. Noodles. Cereal. Green beans. Canned peaches. Oatmeal. Peanut butter.

Food.

She was at its side as fast as she could hobble. Sitting down was a bit more difficult, but she managed to ease herself to the floor by using the Engineer's shoulder for support. It didn't seem to mind, being preoccupied with opening the peanut butter jar. Once sitting down, she snatched the can of peaches and pulled the tab, breaking the seal and then pulling the top back. She tossed the piece of aluminum aside and brought the can up to her lips. Hardly dignified, but the Engineer hadn't brought any utensils with it. Then she forgot everything else as she slurped down the sweet bits of diced fruit and the heavy syrup they were floating in.

Once she was finished, she lowered the can from her lips, still licking syrup off of them, and glanced over at the Engineer. It had opened the peanut butter jar and was sniffing it experimentally, its expression hesitant. It must have decided that the thick brown substance smelled edible enough, because it dipped its index finger into the jar and scooped up a tiny bit. It licked the peanut butter off its fingertip almost delicately, and its expression reminded her of a gourmand investigating the flavor palette of some exotic foreign dish.

The peanut butter must have passed inspection, because soon it was dipping its finger back into the jar and pulling out a bigger glob. It stuck its finger into its mouth and sucked the peanut butter down with a loud slurp.

Shaw managed to hide her smile at that, but wasn't so lucky with the laugh that came out after it stuck half its hand into the jar, pulled out a huge blob of the peanut butter and stuffed it messily into its mouth.

It looked over at her slowly, almost hesitantly, and she could see horrified embarrassment in its dark eyes as it must have realized its faux pas. It took its now-messy hand out of its mouth and looked away from her uncomfortably. There was peanut butter on its nose.

She felt an unexpected rush of tenderness as she looked at the now-mortified Engineer. She suddenly felt like she was dealing with a giant child instead of one of the "superior" creators of humanity. He…he had absolutely no idea how to eat peanut butter. He probably had absolutely no idea how to eat any of the food. She glanced down at the package of uncooked noodles and can of dry oatmeal he had also brought out. Would he try and eat those raw if she didn't help him? Would he know how to get the can of green beans open or realize they needed to be cooked?

She suddenly wondered what Engineers ate. Was it something very different from human food? A single biscuit, packed full of all the calories they needed to get through the day, that they could quickly munch on as they went about their oh-so-important Engineer business? Or maybe they had dispensed with food entirely and just took some sort of nutrient pills or injected nutrients right into their veins.

Maybe eating seemed as primitive and disgusting to them as tearing into a freshly killed carcass would seem to her.

Even if that was the case though, this was the only sustenance available to it right now. And that meant she had to help it.

"Here," she said kindly, motioning for him…for _it_…to give her the jar. It handed the peanut butter over to her after a slight hesitation, and she set it down in front of her. Then she grabbed a package of soda crackers, opened it, and pulled one out. She dipped her own finger into the peanut butter and used it to spread it on the cracker. Then she handed it to the Engineer.

It took it from her, the cracker looking like a tiny hors d'oeuvre in its huge fingers. It stuck the cracker into its mouth. There was a quick crunch and then it had swallowed the tiny piece of food.

Realizing it would take forever for the large creature to get enough to eat that way, Shaw decided to improvise. She began to stack several crackers on top of one another, using peanut butter to glue them together. Once she had made a fairly tall "sandwich" for the Engineer, she handed it to him. He took it and this time took a bit longer to eat it. Better.

Still feeling hungry herself, she made a smaller sandwich for herself, ate it, then started working on another one for the Engineer. They continued on like that until all the crackers and most of the peanut butter were gone.

Shaw re-capped the peanut butter contentedly, feeling pleasantly full, but the Engineer began picking through the other boxes it had brought out. It was still hungry. She began looking through the food herself, found a box of cereal and handed it to the humanoid. Soon it was loudly munching huge handfuls of corn flakes.

She did her best to hide her grin as she began to gather the rest of the food up to put it under the coffee table. That would be an okay place to store it for now. Although she probably should set the things like noodles and canned vegetables aside, at least until she communicated to the Engineer that it shouldn't-

The thought trailed off as she picked up a flat, wide box and felt its contents shift. She could tell by feel that the items inside were long and rectangular. She could recognize the soft whisper of waxy paper against cardboard as they slid around inside the package. She knew what was inside even before she turned it over and read the label.

Chocolate bars.

She ripped it open, silently thanking Vickers for having a sweet tooth. Or maybe it was David. Or Weyland, for all she knew. Whoever this escape pod was meant for.

Soon she was holding what looked like a generic version of a Hershey bar. She broke it in half and popped one of the halves into her mouth. She smiled. It tasted just like a Hershey bar too.

Then she noticed that the room had gone silent. The loud crunching had stopped. She glanced at the Engineer and saw that it was looking at what was in her hand curiously.

She held it out to him. "Dessert," she said happily, as he reached out toward the waxy brown rectangle hesitantly.

He took it from her and bit off a tiny corner of it, his expression the same as when he tasted the peanut butter. Then the entire piece disappeared into his mouth she saw pleasure fill his eyes as he sucked loudly on the chunk of candy.

This time she didn't bother to hide her grin as she gathered up and put away the rest of the food. Beside her, the Engineer got to its feet and headed toward the bar area. A moment later there was the sound of the refrigerator opening.

Soon it had brought back three bottles of water. She took one of them gratefully and gulped it down, the lunch of peanut butter and crackers having made her terribly thirsty. The Engineer made short work of the other two. She felt uneasy for a moment as she wondered how long the food and water would last them, given the creature's appetite, but reminded herself that there was supposed to be two years worth of supplies stored here, and she certainly didn't plan on staying here for two years.

That raised the question of just what she _was _planning on doing…and how she was going to accomplish it, but she decided to save those worries for another day. She was still too injured right now. She'd let herself recover first, then worry about getting off this planet. It would only take a day or two more. Not nearly long enough to make their food supply an issue.

Instead, she got back up and headed toward the couch. Although she didn't really feel sleepy, she didn't know what else to do with herself (it wasn't like she and the Engineer could talk or play parlor games together), and anyway, she really ought to stay lying down as much as possible. She made it to the couch and placed both hands on the cushions, wincing in anticipation of the painful effort it would take to hoist herself back onto the couch.

Then there were footsteps behind her and then the Engineer was picking her up, as gently as if she were a newborn baby, and setting her back on the couch. It sat her on the edge of the cushions, then knelt down in front of her. The action brought back faint memories of her childhood and how her father would sometimes kneel down in front of her when she was very young and give her a talking-to.

There was no reprimand from the Engineer however. It looked at her with soft dark eyes, its expression surprisingly gentle, almost tender. She smiled at it, wondering what prompted the sudden fondness she saw there in its black eyes. True, it had been benevolent toward her ever since it had brought her here, but it had always been a touch cold and indifferent before now. Was it grateful to her for helping it with the food? Was it surprised to find that a human could be benevolent too? It clearly didn't have a high opinion of humanity, so perhaps it was surprising for it to find one who acted kindly toward it instead of making arrogant demands.

Its eyes left her face and rested somewhere just to the right of her. Its heavy brows knit together in curiosity and it reached out a hand. She caught her breath as it delicately took a lock of her hair between its thumb and index finger. It rubbed the hair between its fingers, feeling the texture of it. The curiosity on its face had given way to what almost looked like _fascination._

She couldn't help but feel slightly confused. What was so damn interesting about her hair?

Whatever it was, it certainly held the humanoid's attention. It spread the lock apart, seeming to marvel at how slender and delicate each individual strand was. Then it rolled them back together with another movement of its fingers and gave the lock a gentle tug.

It didn't hurt, and only made her grin widen. Did the being think that human hair came out easily? Did it think it could stick the hair back in again when it was done?

The Engineer let go of her hair and its finger moved to her face and gently stroked one of her eyebrows. It rubbed its finger back and forth a few times, feeling the shorter, bristlier hairs, then it moved down to touch her eyelashes.

It tickled and she barely bit back a giggle. She dropped her eyes down to her lap, feeling a bit like some exotic little animal being studied. She could feel her cheeks reddening.

Perhaps the Engineer noticed the color change too, because its hands left her eyebrows to touch her cheek. Its brows came together in startled curiosity again, and it began stroking her cheek with its thumb.

She began to feel a touch of discomfort, being poked at like this, but decided against telling the creature to stop. It wasn't hurting her, and besides, she had done her fair share of poking at him while he'd been asleep earlier.

The Engineer stopped rubbing her cheek and instead began to scratch at it with the nail on its index finger.

Her eyes widened. It didn't hurt (yet), but she had no idea what it was doing, or why.

It brought its fingers up to its face and looked at them curiously, as if it had been trying to scrape something from her skin so it could take a look at it. It didn't appear to find anything, and reached back toward her face. This time, the nails of its thumb and index finger just barely grazed her flesh as they came together like pinchers…and then pulled.

"Ouch!" she said in surprise as the short, fine hairs on her cheek were given a sharp tug. The Engineer let go of her and looked its still empty fingers in fascination.

"I think that's enough of that for now," she told it gently. So it liked her hair, did it? She supposed that made sense. Its own kind appeared to lack hair of any kind, so maybe human hair-even the short, fuzzy kind that covered otherwise "naked" human skin, was as new and exotic to it as its own smooth, white skin had been to her.

It reached out its hand toward her, as if it wanted to touch her "fuzzy" cheek again, but her expression must have made it think better of the idea. Instead, it reached down and lifted her feet, helping her to lie back down on the couch.

She settled down contentedly, feeling safe and glad that all her immediate needs had been met, but also feeling a bit bored. She wondered again what she was going to go with herself during the next few days. Surely this escape pod had some means of entertainment for its inhabitants, especially if they expected to be stuck in here for two years.

She scanned the room and spotted a short bookshelf over on the far wall. Ah. There was bound to be something worth looking at in there.

Not really wanting to get up again, she looked around for the Engineer. She spotted it coming toward her and cried out in delight when she saw it had a blanket in its hands. Where and when had it found that?

Soon she was wrapped in soft fleece, feeling warm and comfy…and thinking that curling up with a book was sounding more and more appealing.

She pointed to the bookshelf, and the Engineer obediently went over and retrieved a few of the books for her. She smiled and took the creature's hand and pressed it gently against her cheek as a way of saying thanks, then started sorting through her choices. They were mostly classics…apparently Vickers (or David or Weyland) had sophisticated taste. She picked through the pile the humanoid had brought back for her, looking for something light. She'd been through too much lately to want to read anything too thoughtful…or depressing. After passing on _Paradise Lost, Crime and Punishment, A Tale of Two Cities _and _Moby Dick, _she happened upon the misfit of the bunch. A slim, brightly colored volume titled _One Hundred and One Cat Stories._

She could only shake her head for a moment, wondering just which one of the three had insisted _that _be included among the rest of the literature. Then she cracked it open, pulled her blanket closer, and settled down to read while she waited to heal.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

**Who else wants to hum the **_**Odd Couple**_** theme song? :P**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Just wanted to let everybody know that there will be a minor change introduced in this chapter. I've been so used to calling all the characters in the movie by their last names (Vickers, Weyland, Fifield, etc.) that it didn't even occur to me to call Shaw anything else in this fic. But it was pointed out to me that a person probably wouldn't refer to **_**themselves**_ **by their last name, and I have to admit that's a good point. So from now on, our heroine will be referred to as "Elizabeth" rather than "Shaw." I'll have to go back and edit the previous chapters for consistency's sake when I have some time.**

/ / / / / / / / / / / 

The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon passed uneventfully. Elizabeth spent most of it either reading or napping, and trying not to go stir-crazy. The escape pod may have been a luxurious prison, and a necessary one, but it was still a prison. She hoped she and the Engineer would figure out a way to escape this planet, because she thought she might lose her sanity rather quickly if she had to stay cooped up in here for two years.

The Engineer had spent part of the day napping as well, comically cramming its massive body onto the sofa that was directly across from the one Elizabeth herself was lying on. When it wasn't sleeping, it was exploring the escape pod, pacing from room to room and fiddling with every switch, button and appliance it came across. It was almost endearing in a way, reminding her of her father on the rare times when they stayed at hotels during their travels. He had always gone from room to room familiarizing himself with everything in there…the thermostat, air conditioner, television, phone, lights, the fans in the bathroom. Perhaps when faced with unfamiliar surroundings, males simply had an instinctive need to seek out all the buttons they could find and press them.

The creature had done a little bit more than exploring at one point however, because she'd woken up from a nap to a series of crashes and _thunks _coming from one of the other rooms. _Which _room she didn't know, but she was too sleepy to bother with getting up and finding out. Whatever he was doing in there probably wasn't any cause for alarm, since he certainly would have warned her somehow if he were doing something dangerous. Still feeling tired, she'd put him and his noisy escapades from her mind and returned to sleep.

When she woke up again, the light told her it was late afternoon. The escape pod was strangely quiet, and when she raised her head to look around, she saw no sign of the Engineer. She wondered briefly where it had gone, but assumed it was simply in one of the other rooms. It would return soon enough.

But the minutes stretched out to a half-hour, then an hour, and finally, when orangish light bathing the landscape outside told her the sun was setting, she began to get worried. She wasn't sure if she was worried something had happened to the creature, or that it had left her alone, although she was almost ashamed to say that it was most likely the latter. Although she had been preoccupied with other matters the last day and a half, the desperation of her situation was finally beginning to fully sink in, and she realized that she was _terrified _of being left completely alone on this desolate moon.

Unable to stand it any more, she got up and wrapped her blanket loosely around herself as a makeshift robe. She went over to the doorway leading out into the hall and stood there, wondering what exactly she was hoping to accomplish by leaving the room. She couldn't exactly go outside and start wandering around the planet looking for the creature, now could she?

But she couldn't just keep sitting in here waiting forever, either. She was driving herself crazy. She decided that it couldn't hurt to at least get up and take a look around the escape pod. To check all the rooms, and, if it wasn't in any of them, maybe go over to the door that led outside and see…see if it had left some trace of itself there. Something that would show her that it had indeed gone outside. Missing oxygen cylinders or…_something. _She didn't really know what else it could have left. But she wanted to look anyway. It certainly wasn't going to be any less fruitful than sitting in the living area like a bump on a log.

She glanced over at the door that led to the infirmary uneasily. Her "children" were in there, and she really didn't want to see them again. Or _smell _them, for that matter. Their bodies had been lying there for nearly two days now, and they had almost certainly begun to rot. She wondered how long it would be before the smell began leaking into this room…and what she would do about it when it did.

Deciding to check the infirmary last, she headed over to the door that lead to the airlock. She pressed the button that operated the doorway and it slid open with a soft hiss. She took a few steps out into the hallway hesitantly, feeling almost nervous. The whole place felt empty and abandoned. And it was silent, the only sound the soft buzzing of one of the overhead lights. The metal floor was cold beneath her bare feet.

But the warm light of the sunset was spilling in from the small window in the door, making the hallway look almost cozy. Instinctively, she began moving toward it, thinking it might be nice to feel the sunlight on her face. And she could look outside and see if she could spot any trace of the Engineer while she was at it.

She had a sudden mental image of him trotting toward the escape pod in one of those strange, elephant-headed spacesuits she had seen in the holograms, waving at her and saying "Hi, Honey, I'm home!"

She laughed, feeling relieved that the action only made her abdomen hurt slightly now, and started toward the door.

She only got a few steps before she paused. Her feet had touched something…gritty.

She looked down and was surprised to see mud on the floor. Fresh mud, too, or at least, mud that had been tracked in recently. It was still slightly moist. That definitely meant that it wasn't something that she had tracked in when she'd come inside yesterday.

It had to have been left by the Engineer. It had gone outside. And, from the looks of things, had come back in. Recently.

She turned, looking back toward the way she had come, her forehead wrinkled in puzzlement. So where was it? It hadn't been in the living quarters, and she saw no reason why it would have gone into the infirmary, or any of the storage rooms. At least, no reason why it would _stay _in them for half the day.

Had it gone back outside again?

She looked back down at the dirty spot she was standing in. It was slightly oval shaped. Nearby, she saw another, similar spot.

Footprints.

She turned and saw, to her, relief, that there were several more of them, leading back down the hall toward the living area. She turned and followed them, still wondering how the creature could have gotten past her and inside it without her seeing it.

But the muddy footprints didn't lead to the door of the living quarters. Instead, they kept going past it and down a short hallway that led to a wide doorway. One of the storage rooms, certainly.

She looked at it with misgiving. What could the Engineer be doing in there? And why hadn't he come out yet?

Her mind went over a host of reasons as she walked slowly down the hallway. Maybe it had tried to climb up and get something from a top shelf and had fallen. Or one of the shelves had fallen over on it. Or it had eaten something that turned out to be poisonous to Engineers or that they were allergic to. Maybe it had succumbed to its injuries. That burn on its face was serious, but didn't look immediately life-threatening, but maybe it had been injured internally as well in the crash. It hadn't seemed ill before, but sometimes injuries crept up on a person. Maybe it had felt the end coming and had dragged itself off into a private spot to die.

She reached the door and hesitated once more, afraid of what she might find in there. If the Engineer had really been in there for hours, she doubted that the reason was trivial. What if he really was dead? Or even injured? How would she help him?

She knocked softly on the door and waited. One minute stretched into two, then five, then almost ten.

No sounds from within.

Panic seized her in its hot, suffocating grip, and she threw the door open, almost in terror. Inside, the room was surprisingly spacious, and filled with shelves and shelves of boxes and containers. Filled with two years worth of food, medical supplies and other essentials. But she didn't have to rush back into the depths of the room searching. No, what she was looking for was lying in the corner to her right, not ten feet from where she stood.

The Engineer lay curled in a fetal position, his huge legs drawn up against his body, both arms wrapped tightly around himself, his face buried in them as though he was hiding from something. She was relieved to see that he was moving, and therefore alive, but his movements consisted only of weak, almost rhythmic shivering. He didn't look up.

She was at his side in an instant, ignoring the sharp stab of pain in her abdomen that reminded her that her incision wasn't quite healed yet. She knelt down next to him, taking hold of his huge shoulder and shaking him, trying to get his attention so she could find out what was wrong with him.

"Engineer!" she said, feeling a touch of embarrassment mix in with her fear at the fact that she didn't know what to call him. Why had she never bothered to ask him his name? True, they didn't speak the same language, but that didn't mean they couldn't have communicated simple concepts like names to one another. It didn't take much effort or understanding to point to yourself and say a name.

Still, there was no help for it now. "Engineer" would just have to do.

"Engineer!" she said again, shaking him harder. "What's wrong?" The words were useless, the question was useless, but she didn't know what else to do.

He still didn't look up. Nor did he react to her touch, or her shaking him. It felt almost like she was shaking a giant piece of meat instead of a living creature. Other than the shivering, all the life seemed to have gone out of him. It almost seemed as though he didn't even realize she was there.

"C'mon," she said helplessly, shaking him again. He still didn't even acknowledge her presence.

_"Engineer!" _she shouted again, practically in his ear. He didn't even flinch. What had _happened_ to him?

She glanced around the room, searching for some clue as to what had happened, and her eyes fell on a black, rubbery heap that was lying in the other corner. The texture of it reminded her of the suit the Engineer wore, only heavier. Beside it, she could see a solid, round form that was practically covered by the material. As she took a closer look at it, she was able to make out a single, gleaming black eye and what looked like the start of an elephant-like trunk. The sight would have been startling had she not recognized it from her study of the dead Engineer's head two days ago. It was a helmet. And the rest of the pile was probably the spacesuit that went with it. Since he certainly hadn't been wearing that when he'd entered the escape pod yesterday, he had to have gotten it when he'd gone outside earlier. Which meant he _had_ gone to his ship. Something must have happened there.

That black goo. That had to be it. The ship was full of it, and it must have…have…_spilled _or something when the ship crashed. Perhaps all those neatly piled and stacked urns had come loose when the ship had crashed, spilling their contents everywhere. What if the Engineer had accidentally touched some? That would certainly account for why he seemed so…sick. Like…like Charlie had been….

Charlie had certainly touched some of that black goo, although how or where she didn't know. But it hadn't been much, because neither of them had even noticed when it had happened. Yet it was still enough to…to make him…

What if this creature was now doomed to the same fate? Would she have to watch him get sicker and sicker, screaming in pain as the veins on his body turned a tarry black color? Would the Engineer beg her to kill him the way Charlie had begged Vickers?

Tears blurred her vision as she remembered the flames…and the blackened form lying at Vickers's feet when they'd subsided. All that was left of the man she loved.

She couldn't go through that again. Especially not if it meant the loss of her only companion left on the planet.

But if she didn't, what would happen? Would the Engineer end up like Fifield? Would he attack her in a bout of dying madness?

Strangely, that still seemed less scary then killing him now and being alone on this inhospitable moon.

"Oh, Engineer," she said, and her voice sounded tiny and scared. "You…you have to be all right…please…" She placed her hand over one of his own. "Please," she whispered again, lifting his hand and placing it gently against her cheek. It took both of her own hands to lift it.

Still no response. His hand was so limp and heavy that it might as well have been fake.

"Engineer…" she said again, looking down at him in concern…and then she gasped.

He was crying.

His eyes were closed, but huge tears were steadily trickling out the corners of them, leaving long, wet trails on his cheeks. The rhythmic shuddering of his body she now saw was him trying to control his weeping.

Perhaps it was a profound discovery that the Engineers wept like humans, or perhaps it was to be expected, but right now, she didn't stop to ponder the implications of this discovery. Her reaction to seeing his tears was the same reaction she'd have to anyone's…the instinctive urge to comfort.

She reached out to place her hand on his face, but thought better of it when she realized she would be touching his burned skin. Not wanting to cause him further pain, she gently placed her hand on his neck instead. "Engineer…" she said softy, so softly that she was almost whispering. "What's wrong?"

He didn't answer, of course, and she knew he probably wouldn't have answered even if he did understand what she was asking him. He didn't even seem aware of her presence, as if whatever had upset him had caused him to shut out the outside world.

She sat beside him for several minutes, feeling useless. Without knowing what was wrong with him, there was little she could do to help him. Although she now knew his behavior was caused by grief rather than illness, his tears didn't necessarily rule out something physically wrong with him. He could have realized his infection or the extent of his injuries and been weeping over the prospect of his approaching death. And if that was the case, she still would be able to do nothing to help him, other than put him out of his misery, if he wanted that…and if she could bring herself to do it.

However, if there truly wasn't anything physically wrong with him, she was still at a loss of what to do. He couldn't tell her what had upset him, and she wouldn't be able to say anything comforting even if she did know what had happened. Still, her mind tried to puzzle out what could have happened anyway. Maybe he had assessed the damage to his ship and realized that there was no way he could fix it. Maybe he was crying because he realized there was no way off this planet and he now knew he was going to die here.

_They_ were going to die here.

She pushed that thought aside. The last thing either of them needed was for her to sink into despair too. She had to keep it together right now, if he could not. She owed him that much, at least, after last night.

She gently caressed his hand while she tried to think of what to do. It still felt like a piece of dead meat, all the life gone from it. It almost reminded her of the way she had felt when she'd awoken after Charlie had been killed. The feeling that moving, thinking, breathing, _living…_all of it was just so pointless after what had happened. What was the use of even opening her eyes, when she knew that the only thing that awaited her in the conscious world was pain?

Her eyes softened as she looked down at his face, twisted with grief and damp with tears. Perhaps he mourned his own comrades the way she mourned Charlie. Maybe he had watched the holograms while he'd been in the ship, or even found his crewmates' bodies. Perhaps he was even now going over their last moments in his mind, unable to do anything to help them, unable to do anything but watch as they met their grisly fates, fates likely as horrible as those that had befallen many of her own crewmates. Maybe the grief was just as fresh in his mind as her own grief was in hers, despite the length of time that separated the two disasters. After all, he'd been in hypersleep all this time, so even though two-thousand years had passed, for him it probably felt like-

She lost her train of thought as her eyes widened in horror. She looked down at his anguished face, finally understanding reason behind that anguish. The reason why even acknowledging the outside world was suddenly too difficult for him. Why both his mind and spirit seemed so shattered.

Two-thousand years.

"Oh…oh God…" she whispered, looking down at him horrified pity. He'd been in hypersleep for two-thousand years. He…he hadn't known that, had he? He'd gone into it after sealing the chamber, likely to wait for help. Help that had never arrived. He must have looked at the dates on the hypersleep chamber in his ship to determine just how long he'd been kept waiting. And now he knew.

"Engineer…" she whispered, not knowing what to say. Not knowing what to do. Even if she could communicate with him, anything she could say to him would be horribly inadequate. He'd lost everything. His entire world was gone. What could she possibly say that would comfort him after such a discovery?

Perhaps he'd had a family back home that he'd longed to return to. Perhaps a mate, or even children. They were dust now. Although she didn't know for certain low long Engineers lived, she doubted they lived for several millennia. Everyone he had ever known and loved was gone. And their descendants were likely so far removed that they would essentially be strangers.

Even worse, it wasn't just loved ones he'd lost. He'd lost everything. Every single thing he remembered about his life had probably changed immensely. She tried to think of what it would be like if someone from two thousand years ago on earth had suddenly woken up in the present day. Everything would be different. Not just the technology people used, but the food they ate, the language they spoke, the gods they worshipped, the nation they swore allegiance to….everything that made a person who they were would have been altered to the point of being unrecognizable. The whole world would seem like an alien planet. How alone would someone feel if they woke up to that?

And what made things even worse for him, is that he would never know _why._

Why had no one come? Had something terrible happened back on his planet? Were his people gone? Or had he simply been…forgotten about? Or even deliberately left on this moon to rot, the existence of the project he'd been working on covered up for some reason? Who could he ask? Who could tell him what had happened, why his entire world had been taken away from him? They were all dust too.

He'd woken up to find himself completely alone in the universe. There was nothing for him here…and there was nothing for him back home either.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him, tears filling her eyes. As miserable as she was, as bleak as her situation looked, he had it worse. She never thought she would be able to feel pity for one of these godlike Engineers, but she did. She pitied him.

But pitying him wasn't going to help him. She didn't know what _would, _but she had to do something. She couldn't just sit there and stare at him.

She gently reached down and caressed the back of his neck, murmuring softly to him as she did so, telling him it was going to be all right, telling him she was here and wouldn't leave him. He couldn't understand her, of course, but it didn't really matter. The important thing was her tone. He would understand that. If he could even hear her. He still hadn't moved or acknowledged her presence since she'd entered the room.

She wondered vaguely why he had even returned to the escape pod at all if the knowledge of his time in hypersleep had broken him so badly. Why hadn't he simply slipped into this catatonic state at the foot of his hypersleep chamber? Why wasn't he lying there right now?

Unless he'd come back for her. Maybe he'd come back here because he knew he couldn't leave her all alone. Maybe he'd gotten himself back to the escape pod somehow, but didn't feel like he was in any kind of a state to face her. Perhaps he'd hidden in here to grieve his grief out…and simply lost track of time. Or fallen so deeply into despair that he'd forgotten about her…and that she still needed him.

She shook her head. It didn't matter. Right now, he needed her more.

She reached down and gently wiped his tears away with her thumb, an action that proved to be futile when more just replaced them. His face was just soaked with them, and she saw that there was a huge damp spot underneath his head. He must have been crying for a long time. Poor thing would get dehydrated if he kept at it for much longer.

She supposed she could get up and get him some water. He would probably be thirsty when he calmed down, and sipping on cool water might comfort him. It would be small comfort, but it would be something. She couldn't bring his loved ones or home back, but she could attend to his physical needs, his hunger, his thirst, his pain…

She looked down at his burnt face, suddenly wondering if he would allow her to finally tend to his injuries. If he was truly unresponsive to outside stimuli, then maybe he wouldn't care if she cleaned and bandaged it, or injected him with antibiotics. Perhaps she should try it. It would likely be uncomfortable for him, if he noticed it at all, but it was the only way he would begin to feel better. Physically, anyway. The only possible comfort she could provide him right now.

"I'm going to go get a few things," she told him gently. "But I'll be right back." She got reluctantly to her feet, not wanting to leave him alone, but she reminded herself that he'd been alone in this room for several hours now and nothing had happened to him yet. He would be all right for a few more minutes.

"I'm coming back," she said to him again, as she started for the door. Once outside, she walked as quickly as she could back to the living area, the pain in her stomach the only thing that kept her from breaking into an all-out run. Once there, she began picking through all the medical supplies, looking for the appropriate items to treat his burns. And the wound on his leg, while she was at it. Bandages, syringes, painkillers, antibiotics, antiseptic, needle and thread, salve. She tossed them onto her blanket, which she'd spread out on the couch. Next, she walked into the bathroom and grabbed a washcloth. Then, she went back out into the living area and grabbed two bottles of water from the refrigerator. She tossed everything onto the blanket with the medical supplies, and then, after a moment's thought, grabbed the box of chocolate bars out from under the table and added it as well. Anything she could think of that might make him feel better.

Once she had everything, she gathered it up in the blanket and used it as a makeshift sack to carry everything. She hurried back down the hall toward the supply room.

He was right where she'd left him, still weeping and unresponsive. She knelt down beside him once again, and placed her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

"I'm going to take care of the burn on your face," she told him, keeping her voice soft and gentle. "It might hurt a little, but it's the only way you'll feel better. I promise I'll be as gentle as I can, all right?" As usual, she knew the whole speech fell on uncomprehending ears, but again, she hoped at least some of her comforting tone would get through to him. There was nothing to be afraid of. She wouldn't hurt him.

Much, anyway. She couldn't help feeling a bit of misgiving as she readied the syringe filled with the painkiller solution. As she placed it over the wound, she wondered what his reaction would be. Just because he was unresponsive now didn't mean he would stay that way if she did something to cause him pain, and since he didn't appear to be in his right mind at the moment, he might be more likely to lash out at her to get her to stop. The idea made her shudder. She'd seen what he was capable of. He could knock her clear across the room with a single strike.

Still, what else could she do? It wasn't like she could restrain him somehow. Hoping for the best, she gathered her courage, stuck the needle into his flesh and depressed the plunger.

His entire body went rigid and his huge dark eyes flew open in shock. He gasped loudly, looking up at her in surprise as she pulled the needle free. He saw the syringe in her hand, and she suddenly saw a tiny touch of fear enter into his eyes as well.

"All done," she soothed him, setting the syringe down on the blanket beside her. "It's all done. That wasn't so bad, now was it? And you'll feel better once the painkillers take effect." She kept her tone soft and comforting, the same tone she would have used with her children, if she'd been able to bear any.

He kept looking up at her with wide, fearful, tear-filled eyes. Pity filled her so strongly that tears filled her own eyes, but she blinked them back. She needed to remain calm for his sake. She picked up the washcloth and moistened it with water from one of the bottles she'd brought with her. As gently as possible, she dabbed at the wound on his face, trying to clean it.

He winced sharply, cringing away from her, but didn't resist her. She didn't know if it was because he knew the doctoring, painful as it was, needed to be done, or if he was simply so broken that all the fight had gone out of him.

Once she'd cleaned his injury as best she could, she took out the disinfectant, poured some on the washcloth, and began dabbing it onto the wound. It must have stung, because he cringed away even more sharply and let out a small, breathy sound that could only have been a whimper, although it was far deeper than any whimper she'd ever heard a human make.

"Shhhhhhhh…" she soothed him, rubbing the back of his neck with her other hand while she continued to dab at his wound. "It's all right. It's all right, my beautiful Engineer…"

She almost snapped her mouth shut in surprise at what she'd just said, and silently thanked God that the creature couldn't understand her. Still, she could feel herself blushing, and was relieved that he wasn't looking up at her and therefore didn't notice. It had felt strange saying it out loud, as if she was finally admitting to herself something that she'd been trying to deny. She found him beautiful, and it was no longer the distant, almost sterile beauty she'd originally seen in him and the rest of his people. No, his grief and vulnerability had softened his strange, stony features and made him appear more human, more alive, more…real. Even his eyes looked different. This close, and in the bright overhead lighting of the storage room, she could see that they were not the shiny back color they had originally appeared to be, but were instead a very deep, glassy blue, like the eyes of a newborn baby. If she looked closely, she could even make out his iris and pupil, faintly outlined amid the expanse of dark blue. The pupils were a strange shape, almost looking like little crosses rather than circles. Still alien, but so much more human than they had originally appeared to be.

He was beautiful. And seeing something so exquisite and lovely so vulnerable and in such pain made her heart ache. Despite how much more relatable it made him, she still hated seeing him humbled this way.

"You'll feel better soon," she murmured to him as she continued to dab at the wound. She honestly doubted that, but she didn't know what else to say. Hopefully, he would feel better physically, at least.

Once she was finished disinfecting the injury, she readied another syringe with the regenerative solution. Like all the other medicines, she didn't know if it would work on Engineers, but figured it was worth a try. The similarity between human and Engineer DNA made it a possibility, anyway.

He whimpered again, and she looked down at him to see that he was now looking at her…and the syringe she held in her hand.

"I know, I know," she murmured, giving him a pat on his broad shoulder. "It'll be over in a second, all right?" Still, her stomach did flip flops as she brought the syringe down toward the wound. He wasn't going to be taken by surprise this time. If he didn't want a shot, there was nothing stopping him from knocking her block off to prevent it.

But he didn't try to fight back, or even try to make any sort of resistance at all. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and laid his head back down almost pressing his face into the floor…a gesture of such submission that she was almost horrified. She suddenly got the idea that he would let her do anything she wanted to him. That he would have submitted even if she'd gotten to her feet and kicked him in the face.

Having such power over something so large and strong was almost terrifying to her. _He_ was supposed to be the strong one. She'd decided that last night. How could the roles have been reversed so suddenly? Just when she'd found something to rely on, something to help her through this, it was taken from her. She felt like she was on her own again, her caretaker reduced to an invalid. She couldn't do this…she wasn't strong enough.

Instinctively, she reached toward her neck to clutch her father's cross, although, like everything else, that had been taken from her too. But she didn't need to feel it there to remember it…or to remember her father and her father's words.

She went searching among her memories, memories that now felt tainted by David's voyeurism, but in the end, were still hers (if not hers alone anymore), searching for some form of comfort, some form of advice from the man who had always known just what to say, just how to make it better. But as she searched, as she tried to remember, the only thing that kept popping up in her mind was the phrase she'd remembered last night.

_It will be all right, Lizzie…_

She smiled almost bitterly, blinking back the tears that had been gathering in her eyes. _You can't tell me anything else, Daddy? _she thought ruefully. _Nothing about HOW it's going to turn out all right, or what I can do to make that happen? _It figured. Even with her father's assurance, she was still on her own.

But it was better than no assurance at all. She could give up, or she could believe him when he told her everything would turn out all right. And, as long as that was the case, did it really matter _how? _Whether someone else made it all right or she did so herself, the outcome was the important thing.

_It will be all right, Lizzie…_

She nodded and looked back down at the cowering Engineer. She could do this. She could take care of him, just as he'd taken care of her yesterday. She was strong enough. He was safe with her, and she would make him well again. She would make sure of it.

"It will be all right, Engineer," she whispered to him, and slid the needle into the wound.

And in the end, it was surprisingly anticlimactic. A sharp inhalation from him, a quick movement of her thumb as she injected the solution, and then it was over. She almost smiled in relief…and at her own foolish fears.

"All done," she murmured to him, and began spreading the light green salve over the wound. The soft scent of aloe filled her nostrils, and she saw a touch of relief fill his eyes as the cooling salve must have soothed the pain.

By the time she had finished, he was no longer cowering. Instead his eyes were open, and fixed on her, although they still looked empty and miserable. Still, the fact that he was taking any kind of interest in his surroundings at all was a good sign. And despite his newfound alertness, he still allowed her to tend to the wound on his leg without a fuss. He was still submitting to her, but it now seemed to be out of trust rather than fear or despair. She finished off her doctoring by giving him a final injection of antibiotics, an injection he accepted without complaint, then turned back to the pile of supplies she'd brought with her, meaning to put the first aid supplies away and get out one of the water bottles.

Before she could do so, however, she felt movement beside her, and she froze in surprise.

He was getting up.

She turned toward him just in time to see he had had gotten up on his good knee and was reaching for her. She gasped in surprise as he scooped her into his arms and sat back, leaning against the wall as he settled her into his lap. His arms tightened around her as soon as she was situated, and there was almost _desperation _in the gesture, as if he was afraid he'd lose hold of her if he relaxed his grip. For a moment his embrace was almost too tight, and she squeaked in fear, realizing that he could probably crush her to death if he wasn't careful with his own strength, but thankfully, he realized his mistake and loosened his grip, although it was still tight enough that she didn't think she could get away if she tried.

She didn't though. He needed her too much. He was comforting himself by stroking her hair, her neck, her back…reaching down to touch her hands, lifting them , spreading the fingers apart as if marveling at how delicate and perfect they were. He held her close as if she were a cherished little being who he couldn't bear to be parted with. And perhaps she was. After all, without her, he would have been completely alone. Perhaps he was as grateful for her presence as she was for his. Perhaps he realized that he needed her as much as she needed him. Who else was there to care for him, or to comfort him?

"I'm here," she whispered to him. "I'm here and I won't leave you. I promise."

At the sound of her words, he pulled her even closer and leaned down to bury his face in her hair. She felt him sniffle against her, and was suddenly reminded of a child who picks up and holds close the family dog or cat, come to comfort him after a bout of inconsolable grief. He completed the effect by beginning to rock her slightly in his arms, a gesture that was probably more to comfort himself than for her benefit.

It didn't matter though. He needed her and she was there. And she would stay there, in his arms, for as long as he wanted.

Knowing that would probably be for the rest of the night, she closed her eyes and nestled close against his chest as he clung to her. She felt like a mortal nestled in the arms of a god, she felt like a child nestled in the arms of a parent she had finally reconciled with after years of estrangement, she felt like a woman nestled in the arms of a companion…she didn't know which of these was the truth of their relationship, or if they were all the truth, or if none of them were, but she was content regardless. He would take care of her. And now she knew that she would take care of him too. As long as they had each other, everything would turn out all right.

She laid her head against his chest and closed her eyes as around them, night settled heavily over the empty landscape.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**My sincere apologies for such a long delay. Holidays, family drama and a case of writer's block really held up work on this chapter.**

**Also, another correction. It was pointed out in a previous review that Elizabeth was able to figure out in the movie that David was the one who poisoned Charlie, so this fic will proceed with her also having come to that conclusion (I'll have to go back and edit the previous chapter). That's what I get for writing a fanfic when I've only seen the movie once :P**

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

She awoke with a soft groan, every muscle in her body aching. As she tried to move, she quickly realized why. She was still sitting upright, head awkwardly pressed against the Engineer's chest, the creature's huge heavy arms still pinning her in place. She raised her head groggily, wondering how much time had passed, and if it had been long enough that she wouldn't feel guilty waking him up, or trying to wiggle out of his arms. She felt the almost irresistible urge to stretch out. Sleeping like this had been comfortable when she'd fallen asleep last night, but now she was starting to feel rather cramped.

Almost immediately, a large, heavy hand came down and gently smoothed her hair, and she almost jumped. He was awake. How long had be been awake? Had he actually been waiting for _her _to wake up?

She raised her head hesitantly, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious, and saw he was looking down at her with soft, almost sad eyes.

She gazed back up at him with sympathy, knowing that a good night's sleep (if he'd even slept at all, anyway) certainly wasn't going to do much to alleviate the grief he was feeling. Even now, there was a glazed, faraway look in his eyes, as if he were only half-present, the rest of his mind far away, walking the streets of his long-gone homeworld or conversing with his dead relatives.

She smiled up at him feebly, not knowing what else to do but try and cheer him up with her affections. He responded by stroking her hair again, in an almost offhand way. His other arm tightened around her slightly. He still didn't seem like he was interested in getting up…or in letting her go.

Understandable, of course, she reminded herself, but…they couldn't sit here forever. She hated to intrude upon his grief, but…

But what?

She was a little hungry and thirsty, but not uncomfortably so. She was feeling little cramped, but she could hold out a bit longer. And while they did need to get going on a plan to escape from here, they still had plenty of time. And he had been awfully patient with her while she recovered from her injuries yesterday. Perhaps she ought to extend him the same courtesy.

His expression changed slightly, a touch of concern entering his dark eyes, and she realized she was probably letting some of her guilt…or even her impatience show in her expression. She instantly replaced that look with a smile once again, determined to keep up her cheery demeanor for his sake.

This time she saw his expression…harden, as if he were suddenly trying to keep it frozen and not doing a very good job. She looked up at him in concern, suddenly wondering if he was going to start crying again.

Instead, his stoic, stony features broke into an extremely reluctant smile and Elizabeth suddenly felt her surroundings almost _vibrate _as the sound of a rumbly chuckle filled her ears.

He was _laughing?_

He was laughing at _her?_

Both embarrassment and indignation flooded through her in equal parts. So much for trying to be sensitive to his pain…or for trying to be upbeat for his sake. She apparently was so bad at it that he could see right through it…and found it hilarious.

He was now looking at her with open affection, his smile a bit less reluctant, his expression a bit more alert. He gently stroked her hair again, then leaned over and nestled his face in the long, soft strands. She could feel the softness of his breath against her neck, and the sensation made her giggle, her brief annoyance forgotten. He chuckled again and then she felt him kiss the top of her head.

She was helpless to stop the huge grin that appeared on her face when he did that, although she at least attempted to justify it by assuming it was due to the discovery that Engineers also kissed the way humans did. That was surely a profound discovery that was bound to have implications for the study of-

He nestled her close, nuzzling her a bit with his bold, sturdy nose, then placed another kiss on her forehead.

No longer able to help it, she squealed in delight and was rewarded with yet another deep, rumbly chuckle from him. She wrapped her arms around him as best she was able and snuggled against him, smiling as he caressed her. She realized she was almost…regressing, behavior-wise, as if she were a child and the big Engineer an adult she was trying to charm with her cuteness, and she felt a prickle of embarrassment at the idea, wondering why she suddenly felt the need to act so silly. Was she still trying to cheer him up by appealing to him with her small size and vulnerability? Was she secretly delighted to have been finally accepted and cherished by this being she had so desperately wanted to matter to? Or were the two of them just so relieved to find a moment of solace together after all the horrible things that had happened that they had actually embraced a brief moment of silliness?

She supposed it didn't matter much. Stealing a brief moment of happiness couldn't be wrong, whatever the reasons behind it. Still, she knew that the two of them couldn't stay like this forever. The outside world, with its grief and fear and the dreary needs of survival still awaited them. Were they ready to face it?

Perhaps after breakfast, she decided as her stomach rumbled again. And maybe a shower too…and a change of clothes. Vickers was bound to have some clothing stashed around here somewhere. It would probably be too big for her, given the other woman's height, but it would still be better than running around in her underwear.

She looked back up at the Engineer and saw that he was looking forward with a slightly faraway look in his eyes. Perhaps grief had snatched him back to reality while her attentions were diverted. She knew all too well that fresh grief was always waiting nearby, ready to pounce, as soon as distractions ceased appearing. She almost wished she could comfort him with another bout of silliness, but knew that that would just be delaying the inevitable. They did have to get up and face the day eventually.

She gently tugged on his arm to get his attention, the action making her feel once again like she was a child and he her parent. He looked down at her and seemed to pull himself back from someplace far away. He gave her a weak smile, and she fought the urge to hug him once again.

Instead, she pointed to her belly, trying to communicate that she was still hungry. His brows knit together in puzzlement for a moment, and she repeated the gesture. He remained puzzled a few moments more before a touch of comprehension filled his eyes. He reached down and gently placed his hand on her abdomen, feeling the last remnants of the wound there.

"No, no," she said gently, shaking her head rather forcefully to try and help him understand. "It's not that." Her wound still felt a little tender today, but the sharp stabbing pain of the last two days was finally gone. She suspected she was almost fully healed, which was a relief. "I'm hungry," she told him. When his bewildered expression did not clear, she pointed to her open mouth. "Hungry," she said a bit louder, miming scooping up imaginary food with a spoon and then putting it in her mouth.

This time he seemed to understand, and he began to get to his feet. To her surprise though, he didn't set her down, but instead hoisted her into his arms and carried her with him as he opened the door and headed out into the hallway. She opened her mouth to protest, finding this method of transportation to be a bit undignified, but decided against it, not wanting to go through the bother of communicating all that to him. It wasn't far, and she could put up with being lugged around for a few minutes more. After that though, she was going to try to start pulling her own weight a bit more. Now that her stomach was mostly healed, there was no need to have the Engineer wait on her like she was an invalid.

Soon he had re-entered the living area and set her gently down on the couch. Then he got down on his hands and knees and started fishing out the various cans and boxes of food she'd stashed under there yesterday. Her stomach lurched at the thought of eating more peanut butter and crackers or dry cereal. She wanted something more substantial. Something cooked.

Well, they had time didn't they? And there was a small kitchen unit in the corner near the bar. A two-burner stove, small oven, and a microwave. And the bar itself had a sink and plenty of counter space. There were probably dishes and silverware somewhere. Everything she needed.

She got back to her feet, smiling. She was going to cook them something! The best breakfast it was possible to whip up on a life-raft with minimal supplies. Beside her, the Engineer looked up curiously from the box of cornflakes he was opening.

"No, no, not those!" she said excitedly. She took the box from the Engineer's hand, the humanoid too baffled to resist her. She slid it back under the table, then turned back to him and said "wait here, okay?"

She hurried back toward the doorway, but paused when she heard him get up. She turned back toward him and saw that he had started to follow her, still looking at her with dark, confused eyes.

"No, no," she said again. "Wait here." She pointed to him, then to one of the couches. He looked at the couch with misgiving, then back at her. His confused expression deepened.

She was too excited to even be annoyed. Quickly crossing the room back to him, she took his hand and guided him to the couch and sat him down like he was some sort of senile elderly relative. Once she had him situated, she held out both palms toward him, hoping he understood the gesture for stop. That was probably pushing things a bit though. For all she knew, for Engineers, two palms held out was the equivalent of a raised middle finger.

He certainly didn't act like he thought she had just flipped him the bird though. His expression was still confused, but he was staying put. Hoping that was good enough, she turned and scampered toward the door once again.

The storage room was as she had left it the previous night, with the exception that the box of chocolate bars she'd brought was now open, and, from the looks of it, empty. Candy bar wrappers lay strewn about the area where she and the Engineer had been sleeping. Well, at least now she knew what he'd been up to while he was waiting for her to wake up. She bit back her laughter at first, before she realized there was no need to, with the Engineer in the other room.

Now cackling hysterically, she began rummaging through the contents of the shelves, looking for something breakfasty. At first she found only the canned and dry boxed food the Engineer had found yesterday, but finally, toward the back of the room, she found what she was looking for. The freeze-dried foods. Meats, potatoes, eggs, vegetables, desserts. There were even entire meals in cans, and she gave a little cry of delight when she saw a can containing scrambled eggs mixed with pieces of bacon. Perfect!

She grabbed one of the coffee-can sized containers off the shelf and tucked it under her arm, then continued to scan the shelves until she happened upon the powdered drink mixes. She snatched a couple of packets or orange juice mix off the shelf too, then, deciding that she had the makings of a decent breakfast, started back toward the living area.

The Engineer was standing in the hallway when she emerged from the storage room. He wore a hesitant expression, as if he'd been considering going after her to see what she was doing, but it immediately brightened when he saw her coming toward her.

"Breakfast!" she chirped pointlessly at him, gesturing toward the can under her arm. He gave it a dubious look, but followed her back into the living quarters and over to the stove.

She set the can and pouches down on the counter and began rummaging around in the cupboards and drawers for pots, and other cooking utensils. She found them in a large cupboard under the bar. Soon, she had filled a large cooking pot with the eight cups of water specified on the back of the can and turned on the stove.

As she turned back to the Engineer, she saw that he was leaning over the other side of the bar and watching her expectantly, and she suddenly felt the desire to ask him "what'll it be, buddy?" and jokingly offer him one of the many booze bottles located behind the bar. She decided not to though, since he certainly wouldn't understand the joke and it seemed rude to tease him or make even innocent jokes at his expense when he had no way of comprehending of them.

She gave him a smile instead and set about rummaging around for something to stir the food with later. The first drawer she opened seemed to be a junk drawer of some sort, with pencils, pens, paper, scissors and other odds and ends, but the second drawer revealed all sorts of silverware and other cooking utensils Including a much needed can-opener.

As she was opening the top of the large can, she suddenly felt him standing over her. She looked up see he was leaning over and peering into the can curiously, as if wondering what on earth was so special about _this _type of human food compared to the others he'd wanted to eat. He didn't appear to be reassured by the lumpy yellow pellets and dried out chunks of meat he saw in the can.

"Eggs!" she said to him, pointing into the can. He looked back into it and his expression didn't lighten.

"Eggs!" she said a bit more clearly while pointing a bit more forcefully, almost as if she were trying to coax a baby to say his first word.

He looked positively bewildered, but must have decided to humor her, because he finally gave her a phony smile and nodded eagerly, as if feigning excitement.

She fought the urge to laugh again, although this time, it was directed at herself rather than him. The freeze-dried lumps didn't look anything like eggs, and even if they did, he probably didn't even know what an egg _was._ What was the point in trying to explain it to him, let alone trying to get him to say the word?

Then again, the idea of an egg didn't necessarily _have _to be a foreign concept to his culture. There were certainly animals where he came from, and some of them could lay eggs to reproduce. The idea wasn't _that _far fetched, after all. Hell, if there were giant humans living off somewhere in the galaxy, then who was to say there weren't also giant chickens, or lizards, or any other type of egg-laying creature? Perhaps she _could_ make him understand.

Suddenly filled with a single-minded purpose, Elizabeth opened the junk drawer she'd found earlier and took a pen and pad of paper out of it. It wasn't so much that she cared about whether he knew what an egg was, more than it was a desire to see if she could communicate a simple concept to him. They had to start finding an easier way to communicate eventually. The charades were time-consuming and a bit frustrating.

She looked up at him, pointed once again to the contents of the can and said "egg," as clearly as possible. Then she drew an oval on the sheet of paper, pointed to it and said "egg," again.

He just stared at it in confusion, looking like a child who has been called on in class when he wasn't paying attention to the lecture.

She sighed heavily. Was everything she tried to get him to understand really so difficult for him to grasp? She tried to cool her sudden irritation by reminding herself that the cultural gap here was quite a large one. Plus, she supposed her picture wasn't exactly clear. For all she knew, eggs on his planet were spheres, or cubes or dodecahedrons or some other impossibly strange shape. Hell, even if they were oval like the kind on earth, that didn't necessarily mean her drawing still looked like one. For all he knew, it could have been any number of oval-shaped things.

She looked at it for a moment, wondering what she could do to make it look more like an egg. Maybe show it hatching? She added a few artistically placed cracks near the top of the egg.

This time he definitely understood…something. His eyes widened and for a moment, she thought she saw revulsion, perhaps even horror in them. He looked back up at her with open alarm, as if he'd just realized she'd been spying on him in the shower or something. She could only look back at him sheepishly, wondering what she'd done to startle him so badly.

This was _not _going well.

He looked down at her crude drawing of an egg with misgiving once more, then flicked his eyes back toward the open can. A moment later, his expression cleared and she was surprised to see not only relief, but amusement in his eyes, as if he'd briefly considered, but ultimately rejected some ridiculous idea. A moment later, he gave a chuckle and patted her affectionately on the shoulder.

She set the pen down in frustration. She'd hoped that drawing might be helpful, but it seemed like it was just as complicated and incomprehensible as playing charades. She guessed the two of them were doomed to only be able to communicate the simplest of concepts to one another, at least for now.

_Simple concepts like names?_

She brightened immediately, recalling her musings from the previous day. They could at least find out each other's names. _That_ didn't seem like something that was too complicated to communicate through the language barrier.

She looked back up at him and saw that he was staring down at the pen and paper with a dull expression, that faraway look back in his eyes.

She cleared her throat and his eyes darted back up to meet hers. When she had his attention, she pointed to herself and said clearly: "Elizabeth."

His eyes dropped down to where she was pointing and his expression changed to confused and slightly uncomfortable. Her face reddened when she realized she was pointing to her breasts. She gave an awkward laugh and then got up and held both hands out besides her. She gestured with them up and down the sides of her body, as if outlining herself. Then she once more said "Elizabeth."

This time he seemed to understand. He gave her a nod, comprehension filling his dark eyes.

Elizabeth wasn't quite satisfied yet though. She wanted him to say it. "Elizabeth," she said once more, pronouncing each syllable as slowly and clearly as she could.

He paused for a moment, seemed to consider, and finally indulged her. "Leezabet," he said, pressing his lips together afterward as if the unfamiliar syllables had left a funny taste in his mouth.

"That's close," she said encouragingly. "Let's try it again. _E_lizabe_th_," she said once more, placing emphasis on the syllables he'd butchered the most.

He tried again. "A-leezabet," he rumbled. A touch of self-consciousness had entered into his eyes.

"Close!" she told him, still trying to remain cheerful and encouraging. Two more attempts yielded no improvement though. He appeared to have difficulty saying the "th" sound at the end of her name. Did his language not use that sound?

She opened her mouth and touched her tongue to her two top front teeth in an attempt to demonstrate the sound. "TH!" she said to him. "ElizabeTH!"

"A-leezabeTH!" he said so forcefully that her face was suddenly covered in a fine spray of saliva. He clapped a hand over his mouth in horror as Elizabeth blinked stupidly a few times, wondering if she should get up and look for where the napkins were kept.

She settled for wiping off her face with her forearm. "That's…uh…close enough," she told him, deciding a perfect pronunciation wasn't worth another spittle shower. "You did very well," she reassured him, patting him on the hand and grinning at him.

He seemed to consider for a moment, but finally reciprocated the smile. She didn't know if he was actually pleased with himself or just humoring her, but it didn't really matter. He finally knew her name. Now it was his turn.

"And what's _your _name?" she said, after a moment had gone by without him volunteering the information. "YOUR name," she said again, pointing to him.

He seemed to get the idea. He gestured up and down the length of his body the way she had, and then said "Mala'kak."

"Mala'kak," she repeated.

He brightened a bit, as if pleased with her pronunciation, and Elizabeth couldn't help but feel ridiculously proud of the fact that'd she'd done better than him at learning an alien name. Not that it mattered. She really ought to stop with the silly score-keeping. She didn't need to prove herself to him anymore. He had made it clear that he liked her.

But did he _respect _her? Did he view her as a person or an adorable little pet? She suspected it was the latter, and that her animated and childlike behavior today hadn't done much to change that view. Of course, that couldn't be helped, since the language barrier necessitated fairly simplistic and animated gestures and behavior to communicate concepts. If the two of them had been able to talk normally, perhaps his opinion of her would be higher.

She sighed softly. As much as she hated David, she actually kind of wished he were still around. A translator would be extremely useful right now. Not that Mala'kak would likely stand for such a thing. He'd made his own dislike of David quite clear. Of course, Elizabeth didn't actually know why he hated David so much. She didn't know if he objected to the android himself or if David had said something to anger him. She didn't actually know the exact message that Weyland had wanted David to tell Mala'kak…or if he'd actually said the scripted message at all. For all she knew, he had called Mala'kak's mother a whore. That almost seemed like something David would do, just for the fun of it. Maybe he wouldn't have made such a reliable translator after all.

Still, unreliable was better than nothing. And he _had_ still been operational after his head was removed from his body. Of course, two days had passed since her last communication with him, and she didn't know how long he could last with his head detached like that. Her suit and its attached communication equipment had been missing after Mala'kak had removed it from her, and she hadn't been able to figure out what he'd done with it, so she'd had no way to check if David was still operational. Still, there was a good chance he still was…

"Hmmm…" she said softly to herself, considering…

If he was still operational, could she go back to the ship and get him? Could Mala'kak take her? If so, would he tolerate David's presence here in the escape pod? Would _she _be able to tolerate it? She strongly suspected he was responsible for Charlie being infected, and that in and of itself made his very presence even more offensive to her than it had been to Mala'kak. Could she put up with him for the sake of easier communication? Could she even trust him to be a reliable translator? The last thing she needed was for David to tell Mala'kak that she was planning on murdering him in his sleep or something.

She almost jumped when she felt Mala'kak's hand touch her own. She looked back up at him and saw his expression had grown a touch concerned…and slightly indignant as well. She realized that he was probably a bit confused as to why she had gone so quiet and gained such a dour expression after he'd taught her his name.

"It's a lovely name," she told him with a huge smile, hoping she hadn't offended him. Well, it was suitably alien, anyway. It was certainly going to be nice to finally have something to address him by.

A rhythmic bubbling behind her told her that her water was finally boiling. She got up and turned off the heat, then dumped the contents of the can into the hot water. A few minutes later, she was stirring smooth, creamy scrambled eggs and chunks of bacon. The smell was heavenly.

Soon she was spooning eggs into a regular bowl for herself and a large mixing bowl for Mala'kak. She stuck a large serving spoon into his portion and set it in front of him. As he picked up a spoonful of eggs and sniffed it experimentally, she set about mixing up the orange juice. Once finished, she poured it into two glasses, regretting that she didn't have anything larger for Mala'kak. He would just have to refill it a lot. Which would probably be like drinking your orange juice out of a shot glass, but there was no other alternative. She brought it over to him and saw that he was already wolfing down his breakfast, a fact which surprised her. If he had brought her a bowlful of yellow blobs and the meat from some unknown alien creature, she was sure she'd be a bit more reluctant about digging in. Then again, she doubted that a boxful of chocolate bars stuck with a person for very long, so he was probably starving.

Her stomach rumbled loudly, reminding her that she was starving too. She found herself a fork and dug in.

She was surprised to find that the dish tasted fantastic. It was amazing what they were able to do with freeze-drying technology nowadays. Of course, given the intended occupant(s) of this escape pod, perhaps this was some sort of top of the line, gourmet freeze-dried food. Only the best for snobby Vickers and rich old man Weyland. And his pet android.

The thought of David pulled at her again. Could she really go back to the crashed ship and get him? _Should _she? He was, after all, dangerous and untrustworthy. Did she really want to risk him putting her in further danger…or letting him hurt another person she cared about?

She swallowed another bite of scrambled eggs, no longer really tasting them anymore as she pondered her dilemma. David was unlikely to be much of a threat without his body. And if he grew too…upsetting to her, she could always find a way to deactivate him. Maybe it was worth a try.

Of course, she would have to find out if he was operational, first. And to do that, she needed Mala'kak to take her to the ship. She looked back up at him and saw that he was refilling his orange juice for the third time.

"Mala'kak?" she asked hesitantly.

He looked up from his orange juice, curiosity, and, surprisingly, a touch of indignation in his eyes. Knowing that it would be too difficult to figure out what she might have done to offend him, she did her best to ignore the look and grabbed the pad of paper she'd been using earlier. She tore the top sheet off, then began to draw on the fresh sheet. She drew a line for the ground, a small half-circle to represent the escape pod, and a large horseshoe shape to represent the Engineer spaceship. Then, standing outside the escape pod, she drew a large stick figure, and then a smaller stick figure standing beside it. She added a scribble of hair to the smaller figure's head. Then she drew a circle around the two of them, and an arrow leading from the circle to the horseshoe-shaped ship.

His eyes widened in alarm, and she swallowed a touch of nervousness, but surprisingly, he didn't do anything other than feign a very badly acted confused look and go back to his breakfast. Which he suddenly seemed quite interested in. Too interested to look up at her.

"Mala'kak!" she said, a bit desperately, wondering what prompted the sudden evasion. He looked back up at her and this time she saw both indignation and a touch of confusion in his eyes.

"Mala'kak?" she asked again, wondering what was wrong.

He looked at her speculatively, as if pondering some sort of strange behavior on her part and she felt herself blushing again. What had she done wrong now?

A twinkle of amusement entered his dark eyes, as if he'd come to some sort of hilarious conclusion about her mysterious faux pas, and he reached for the pad of paper.

Elizabeth watched as he tore off the sheet with the spaceship drawing and began awkwardly (the pen in his huge fingers reminding her of one of those tiny stub pencils that were sometimes provided for score-keeping at bowling alleys and miniature golf courses) drawing what looked like a series of….dolls. At least, that was the closest thing she could think of to compare them to. Elegant and slightly abstract, the series of figures stood facing forward with what looked like stylized arms folded in front of them. They almost reminded her of the Cycladic sculptures she remembered studying in one of her archeology classes-simplistic, nearly featureless statues found in some Bronze Age Greek tombs. He finished drawing five of them and then began drawing a series of smaller but otherwise identical "dolls" standing beside them.

Once the smaller series was completed, he added a few squiggly lines coming off the back of their heads, like stylized hair. No such squiggles were added to the larger figures.

She couldn't help wondering if that meant the smaller figures were meant to represent humans, while the larger ones were Engineers. Were these 'dolls" his culture's equivalent of stick-figures?

He cleared his throat and she looked back up with him. He pointed to himself and said "Mala'kak."

She nodded confusedly, still not understanding what he meant.

He then touched his pen to one of the large "stick figures." "Mala'kak," he said again.

She nodded stupidly again. Was that figure supposed to be him?

He pointed to the next figure. "Mala'kak" he said again.

She watched as the next three were also christened with the name. They were _all_ named "Mala'kak?" No, that was silly. If they were all called "Mala'kak," that meant "Mala'kak" was probably the name of his people, or species, rather than his given name.

She blushed again, realizing she'd been calling him the equivalent of "human," the last couple of times she'd addressed him. No wonder he had looked slightly offended.

He only seemed slightly amused by it now, though, likely understanding that the offense was cause by the language barrier rather than a deliberate act on her part. He smiled at her sympathetically, then pointed to himself and said "Olunnhar."

"Olunnhar," she repeated, forcing herself to swallow a tiny chuckle as she said his real name. It sounded strangely brutish, especially when said in his growly voice.

He nodded, then pointed to the smaller series of figures before looking at her expectantly.

She realized he probably wanted clarification as to whether "Elizabeth" was her given name or the name of her species. Given that he had thought she was asking for his species name earlier, he probably assumed "Elizabeth" was the latter.

Chuckling a bit, she set about correcting him. "Human," she said, pointing to herself. Then she pointed to the smaller figures he'd drawn and named each one of them a human too. Then she pointed to herself once again and said "Elizabeth."

"Leezabet," he repeated and she saw a touch of warmth in his eyes when he said it this time, as if he was happy to have finally learned her name.

"Right," she said, glad the misunderstanding was cleared up. Still, she couldn't help glancing down at the paper with the figures on it in exasperation. She'd thought teaching each other their names would be a fairly simple activity…and yet they'd managed to screw it up quite badly. They really did need David.

She bit back a sigh and looked at the piece of paper she'd drawn the spaceship on. She was going to have to try again. For the sake of both their sanity, if nothing else.

"Olunnhar?" she asked

He looked up from refilling his orange juice.

She held out the spaceship drawing again.

His expression darkened slightly, but this time he didn't pretend to misunderstand. Instead, he shook his head forcefully.

"What…wh…well….why not?" she stammered uselessly, not knowing where to go from there. Why didn't he want her to accompany him? Did he think it was too dangerous? Was there top secret technology in the ship he was afraid of her seeing? It was going to be hard to convince him otherwise when she didn't even know what his objections were.

It might be hard to convince him period, actually. Even if she could explain she wanted to find David, she didn't know if he would even be receptive to that. For all she knew, he'd already found David's severed head during his last visit to the ship…..and "disposed" of it. And if David was still operational, Olunnhar might object to bringing him back. He clearly hated David. Telling him she wanted to go with him in order to get David might actually strengthen his resolve to leave her behind. It might even make it a priority for him to find David's head on his own…and step on it.

No, she couldn't tell him why she wanted to go out there. Which would make convincing him practically impossible. If only there was a way she could go out there and get David on her own. But that was impossible without a suit.

Unless Vickers had one stashed away somewhere…

She paused for a moment, considering. That might actually be a possibility. If there was a spacesuit aboard and if it fit her, perhaps she _could _go out to the ship on her own. It wasn't far. Then again, she had no idea how to get inside of it once she got there. For all she knew, the doors only opened if you punched in some alien combination. But if Olunnhar did go back to the ship, maybe she could follow him and see how it was done.

"Hmmmm...," she said quietly to herself. Those were all pretty big ifs. How she would be able to do all that without him seeing her remained a huge obstacle. And how she would find her way to David and get back out again…and how she would do it all without accidentally running into Olunnhar….and how she would reveal David's presence to him once they got back to the ship. Those were problems too. In fact, the more she thought about it, the stupider and more hopeless it all seemed.

But, strangely enough, it still didn't seem as stupid or hopeless as an endless string of miscommunications.

She jumped slightly when she felt his hand on her own. She looked up at him and saw that he was looking at her with a sympathetic and slightly ashamed look, as if he felt badly about denying her request.

She couldn't help but feel a touch of guilt. Despite the short time they'd known one another, he did seem to genuinely care about her. Wasn't that what she'd wanted from the start? And now that she finally had it, the first thing she did was plan to go behind his back and lie to him?

But still, what other choice did she have? They needed a translator, and not just to save themselves some frustration. No, they also needed to be able to communicate with one another in order to figure out a way off this planet. Without all that, she would be left with nothing to do but sit on this escape pod and hope that Olunnhar had a plan. Because what if he didn't? What if he were hoping _she _had a plan? They needed to be able to talk about escaping, and they needed a translator to do so. If he was unwilling to do anything about that on his own, then she was going to have to take matters into her own hands. It was as simple as that.

Hopefully, he would understand…eventually.

She finally gave him a sad smile and nodded, as if reluctantly accepting his decision.

He seemed pleased, and patted her on the hand before setting about refilling his orange juice once again. Elizabeth tried to turn her attention back to her scrambled eggs, but her mind was blasting away at full-throttle, making plans for how she would accomplish her little covert mission. And trying to fend off her guilt. She suspected she was going to have to get used to doing that, no matter how many justifications she used to convince herself she was in the right. But she also knew she had no other choice. Her plan might not have been ideal, but it was the best decision she could make, under the circumstances.

She hoped he would forgive her.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / /

**And now for a few shout-outs:**

**First, I got some more wonderful fanart, based upon the previous chapter. Thank you so much, milky0candy! It's a very sweet picture and I love it so much :D**

** EDIT: Okay, so no matter how much I try to disguise the links, they aren't working. The name of the site especially seems to be censored no matter what I do :P So to see the fanart, go to a certain website that has "Deviant" in the first part of the name and "art" in the second part. To see milky0candy's pic, type "Tears of a God Prometheus" in the search bar and it will be the first picture that shows up. To see NuclearMetallity's pic that I tried to link in a previous chapter and encountered the same problem with, type "Prometheus pairing ever" in the search bar, and it will be the first pic to come up.**

** There, fanfiction site whose name I dare not type for fear of censorship. Is that acceptable to you? :P **

**Ahem, anyway, I also decided to take one of my previous reviews to heart and did a little research on freeze-dried meals to make the food situation a little more realistic, and I'd just like to say our protagonists' breakfast was provided by Mountain House freeze dried foods. Nine out of ten YouTube videos agree that it hits the spot :P**

** Finally, I'd like to thank BLANDCorporatio for helping me avoid an idiot plot, and NuclearMetallity for the name "Olunnhar."**


End file.
